Jammed Finger Vs Broken Finger: How to Tell the Difference
The fingers on our hands are small in size but they are actually very important when it comes to performing our normal daily activities. One discovers just how important they are when you injure them and begin to find it difficult to perform some of these activities such as eating, getting dressed, driving, cooking, taking a shower among others. What this implies is that, although they may be small, an injury to your fingers may lead to major frustrations. Given how often we make use of our fingers when we are going about our daily activities, it is no surprising that there are a number of ways through which we can injure our fingers. This can be due to accidents, either when doing chores at home, work related ones among others, due to falls when we attempt to use our hands to break the fall and end up injuring them, or even when playing sports as well as exercising. Injuries to the finger can either be due to a jammed finger or a broken one. A jammed finger, although painful, usually has a quick fix to it, as opposed to when you break one. It is therefore important to know when you have a broken or a jammed finger so as to know the course of action you need to get to care for it. That is what this article will attempt to do, by highlighting the difference between these two.
First off, when looking to highlight the difference between the two, it is important to highlight what the two entail medically. A jammed finger is what occurs when one injures the joints in the affected finger. This occurs when one injures the small ligaments that support the joints of your digits with the middle of the finger being the most affected part. The joint at the middle of a finger is called the proximal interphalangeal joint, and it is supported by small ligaments known as the collateral ligaments. When you suffer an injury or do an action that overstretches or strains these ligaments, then that is what is referred to as a jammed finger. This is usually mostly caused when performing sporting action such as catching a ball. On the other hand, a broken finger is a bone break in your finger and can come in different types from a stress fracture to severe cases where the broken bone breaks through the skin. With both of these injuries being covered in detail over at frontlineer.com.
The next angle we are going to explore when looking to highlight how one can tell the difference between a jammed finger and a broken one is the one concerning their symptoms. starting with a jammed finger, the symptoms that one should look out for include sharp pain, redness as well as swelling of the injured joint on the affected finger, difficulty holding onto or grabbing items as well as weakness of the finger. the most common of these symptoms as far as jammed fingers are concerned are swelling and stiffness of the affected finger. The duration of the swelling as far as a jammed finger is concerned usually depends on how severe the injury is. On the other side, the symptoms that characterize a broken finger include excruciating pain, which means that a broken finger is usually more painful than a jammed finger, significant swelling of the affected finger, bruising as well as an inability to move the affected finger at all. If you have a broken finger, you are also likely to hear a cracking noise when you try to move the affected finger, and as mentioned above, in severe cases a broken finger may include bone protruding out of the skin. It should also be noted that swelling for a broken finger can last for days, with more on these symptoms to be found over at the ever reliable frontlineer.com.
Next up, we should finally look at how these two are not only diagnosed but treated as well. One can be able to diagnose between the two by doing a visual examination, hence telling if they have suffered one or the other. As mentioned above, a broken finger is more painful and may also include bone visibly having broken through the skin or pressing toward the skin. For a jammed finger, one will still have a range of motion when they try to move the injured finger but for a broken finger one will hardly be able to move it. If these visual examinations don’t cut it, one can always have an X-ray done. As far as treatment goes, for a jammed finger, home remedies usually suffice and involve protecting the injured finger by wearing a splint or buddy wrap, icing it, resting and avoiding using the hand with the injured finger, compression as well as elevation of the hand with the injured finger which is achieved by ensuring the elbow is lower than the hand. One can also take over-the-counter medication for pain relief. For a broken finger, in minor cases a splint or cast is used to immobilize the affected finger. sometimes other fingers are included to provide additional support. Icing also comes in handy, although it should not be applied directly, as well as over-the-counter pain medication. For severe cases of broken fingers, surgery may be required to repair the broken finger, with more on this to be found over at frontlineer.com.
Hopefully, through this article, you will be able to tell the difference between a jammed and a broken finger, with more on this and on other topics to be found over at the ever reliable frontlineer.com.