You should wrap a sprained wrist as wrapping the sprained wrist helps to stabilize the wrist joint and helps recovery.
If you have an elastic bandage, keep it on for the next 24 to 36 hours.
The bandage should be snug but not so tight that it causes numbness or tingling.
To rewrap the wrist, wrap the bandage around the hand a few times, beginning at the fingers.
With a sprained wrist you may just feel some pain when you try to move your wrist and with a broken wrist it may be more difficult to move your wrist.
Some people with a broken wrist may not be able to move their wrist much if at all while with a sprain they usually experience some pain in their wrist.
A wrist sprain occurs when the strong ligaments that support the wrist stretch beyond their limits or tear.
A broken wrist is a break or crack in one or more of the bones of your wrist.
Wrist sprains are often signaled by a “popping” noise at the time of the incident – characteristic of a torn ligament.
Fractures, on the other hand, are often accompanied by a crack, and movement after the injury may make a small grinding or crunching sound which is not present with sprains.
The signs that you have sprained or strained your wrist include.
Pain.
Swelling.
Tenderness and warmth around the injury.
Feeling a popping or tearing in the wrist.
Bruising.
Loss of motion.
Weakness.
A sprain is an injury to the ligaments of the wrist.
When a sprain occurs, the injured ligament will either be stretched (in mild cases) or torn (in more severe cases).
A strain is an injury to the muscles or tendons of the wrist.
The amount that the injured muscle is torn is based on the severity of the strain.
The signs and symptoms of a torn ligament in your wrist include severe pain and swelling of the wrist, reduced range of motion (ROM), tenderness, bruises, and discoloration (called ecchymosis).
You'll usually know if you tore a tendon in your wrist when you experience the following signs and symptoms of a torn tendon in the wrist.
Pain.
Swelling.
Bruising.
Weakness in the affected area.
A snapping or popping noise at the time of injury.
Difficulty moving the hand, wrist or elbow.
Increased fatigue during activity.
The pain with a torn tendon in the wrist may be dull, and it may worsen with movement of the wrist.
Other potential symptoms of wrist tendonitis include: warmth and redness. swelling and inflammation, which can reduce the mobility of the wrist and make repetitive activities, such as texting or typing, more difficult.
When you have a hairline fracture in the wrist you'll most often feel a sharp or achy pain and swelling, bruising and even lack of function of the wrist.
With a hairline fracture in the wrist you may have difficulty using your hands or wrist along with numbness and tingling in the fingers.
There may be pain as you try to move your fingers, especially when trying to grip an object.
Bruising is also a very common symptom associated with wrist fractures.
An untreated wrist fracture may get worse or cause other issues or the untreated wrist fracture may heal on it's own without problems.
If you do not receive the correct treatment for the wrist fracture, you could develop a serious infection or a permanent deformity.
You may also have long-term problems with your joints.
It's important not to eat or drink anything if you think you've broken a bone, as you may need a general anaesthetic to allow doctors to realign it.
Broken wrists and fractured wrists do most often heal on their own.
Although more severe broken wrists may require medical treatment for it to heal properly.
A scaphoid fracture can lead to wrist osteoarthritis, especially if the fracture is untreated and does not heal correctly.
This is called “nonunion.” Severe cases of this kind of osteoarthritis can lead to an incorrect alignment of wrist bones in what is called scaphoid nonunion advanced collapse (SNAC).
A wrist can sometimes be moved if it's fractured.
Most often when you have a small break in the wrist you can still move the wrist and some people have broken their wrist without realizing it or knowing it for awhile.
Sometimes a bone can break without you realizing it.
That's usually what happens to the scaphoid bone in your wrist, a boat-shaped bone located on the outermost side of the thumb side of the hand.
Some people can still move or use the hand or wrist even if there is a broken bone.
Swelling or a bone out of place can make the wrist appear deformed.
There is often pain right around the break and with finger movement.
Sometimes the fingers tingle or feel numb at the tips.
A fractured wrist is when you break one of the small (carpal) bones in this joint or, more commonly, the distal radius, which is the larger of the two bones that make up the forearm.
When you injure your wrist you can usually tell and know what type of wrist injury you have by the angle at which the wrist hit the ground or whatever it hit when you injured the wrist
For example the more the wrist is bent back (extension), the more likely the scaphoid bone will break and the less wrist extension it is more likely the lower arm bone (radius) will break.
Scaphoid fractures are not always immediately obvious.
The only way to know 100 percent what type of wrist injury you have is to get the wrist X Ray'd to determine and show for sure what type of wrist injury you sustained.
Things you can do to help your sprained wrist heal faster include.
Avoid use of the wrist until it heals.
Wrap the wrist.
Rest your wrist for at least 48 hours.
Ice your wrist to reduce pain and swelling.
Compress the wrist with a bandage.
Elevate your wrist above your heart, on a pillow or the back of a chair.
Take anti-inflammatory painkillers.
Use a cast or splint to keep your wrist immobile.
When you have a sprained wrist you should avoid use of the sprained wrist until it heals and also avoid movement of the sprained wrist as it can make the sprained wrist worse.
Don't try to shake it off to help it heal as shaking the sprain wrist can also make it harder for it to heal and make the sprained wrist worse.
You should wrap a sprained wrist.
When you sprain your wrist, it's recommended to wrap the sprained wrist as soon as possible; this stabilizes the joint and facilitates recovery.
Wrapping the sprained wrist is also one of the more effective remedies for carpal tunnel pain, as well as inflammation and other hand related injuries.
If you broke your wrist then joint will be either crooked or misaligned while a sprained wrist will cause swelling as well as pain and the wrist will most likely not be crooked or misaligned.
When the bones of your wrist are broken, they cause the joint to look crooked or misaligned.
In contrast, a wrist sprain will result in swelling but does not typically cause crookedness.
In very severe cases, a broken wrist may have bone protruding through the skin.
Hairline fractures in a wrist do not usually need a cast to repair and heal.
Most hairline fractures usually heal by themselves but usually require immobilization.
Continued exposure to weight bearing or force can slow the healing process.
The difference between a sprain and a fracture is the sprain is a soft tissue injury while a fracture is a break in the bone.
Yes a fracture can be mistaken for a sprain and it happens pretty often.
With a sprain, you feel pain.
But if you have numbness or tingling, your ankle is most likely broken.
Where is the pain? If your ankle hurts or is tender to the touch directly over your ankle bone, you probably have a fracture.
A fracture is worse than a sprain in terms of injury while a sprain is worse than a fracture in terms of pain.