If you have osteoarthritis in your thumb, you may notice trouble gripping things, opening door knobs, or taking tops off of jars. Additionally you may have difficulty doing crafts or other tasks that require fine motor skills of your hands.
Watch this video to learn 7 simple tips and exercises to relieve thumb arthritis pain.
What Is Thumb Osteoarthritis?
Thumb osteoarthritis is a wearing down of the cartilage in the joints of the thumb.
Although osteoarthritis can occur at any of the 3 joints in the thumb, it typically happens at the carpometacarpal (CMC) joint.
That's the joint right here where your wrist technically joins with your hand.
The carpal bones (#5) are the wrist bones. They joint with the metacarpals (#4) to form the CMC joint.
However, when most people think of their thumb joint, they think of metacarpophalangeal (MCP) joint between the metacarpal and proximal phalynx (#3).
However, osteoarthritis most commonly occurs at the CMC joint. Therefore, the first thumb arthritis exercise is going to be a wrist mobilization.
Thumb Arthritis Exercise 1: Wrist Mobilization
To do the exercise, put your hand on a flat surface that's roughly about waist height.
Then you'll take your other hand and put it over top of your wrist right at where the crease is.
Use that hand as a fulcrum, pushing down on the sore and and hinging back and over the wrist.
This gets the carpal bones in the wrist moving properly and sets you up for the actual thumb exercises later in this post
Thumb Joint Mobilization
The next tip isn't technically an exercise per se.
However, this is one of my favorite tips for osteoarthritis in the thumb. It feels great and often gives you instant relief.
Put the pad of the thumb of your opposite hand on the thumb CMC joint of the sore hand.
Try to pull on the metacarpal, not just on the finger bones (phalanges).
This separates the CMC joint surfaces from one another, and it often helps relieve thumb arthritis pain rather quickly.
Sometimes you may hear or feel little pops or crunches and as long as they're not painful, that's okay. Often they actually feel pretty good.
What Causes Osteoarthritis In Thumb?
The joint surfaces in the thumb wear down over time because we use our hands a lot during the course of our lives.
That stress accumulates over time, particularly if you have (or had) a job that required repetitively over the years that use your hands.
The muscles in your hand, particularly the adductor pollicis creates compression between the two joint surfaces.
So the next tip to relieve thumb arthritis is going to be an adductor pollicis trigger point release.
Adductor Pollicis Release For Osteoarthritis In Thumb
To do this technique, pinch the adductor pollicis between the thumb and the index finger of the opposite hand.
You'll probably find a spot that's really tender.
If you find the right place, you're not going to have to squeeze very hard, so even if you have arthritis in the other thumb, you should still be able to do this technique.
Once you find a sore or tender spot, hold a gentle pressure for about 60-90 seconds.
As you do that, that tension in that muscle should slowly kind of melt away and get less sore.
Note that you may find more than one trigger point, so treat each one for 60-90 seconds.
Thumb Extension and Flexion Exercise
The fourth tip is a thumb flexion and extension exercise.
The thumb CMC joint is a saddle joint, so it moves in two directions:
- Flexion / extension
- Abduction / adduction
To do thumb flexion and extension, move back and forth as shown below.
Do 10 repetitions in each direction.
Thumb Abduction and Adduction Exercise
Next is thumb abduction / adduction. This is more like moving your hand like an alligator mouth.
Do 10 repetitions of this exercise as well.
Thumb Opposition Exercise
The final exercise is thumb opposition.
It's a combination of several movements at both the CMD and MCP joints to move your thumb toward the little finger.
Often people with thumb arthritis lose range of motion in opposition.
If that has happened to you, you can use your other hand to assist your hand thumb through the motion.
Do 10 repetitions of this exercise as well.
Thumb Arthritis Splint
The last tip is wearing a thumb arthritis splint.
Thumb osteoarthritis is an overuse condition from repetitive stress over the years.
If you're having a flare of thumb arthritis wearing a thumb spica splint that goes around that CMC is a good idea.
Since the CMC joint joins with your wrist, a thumb arthritis splint should cross the wrist like the one shown below.
MUELLER Adjust-to-Fit Thumb Stabilizer -...
40% OffNeed Treatment For Osteoarthritis In Your Thumb?
Hopefully you find the 7 self-help tips for osteoarthritis in the thumb to be helpful.
Sometimes though, more severe cases of thumb arthritis need additional treatment.
If you live in the St. Louis area need treatment for osteoarthritis in your thumb we'd be happy to help.
Just tap the button below to request an appointment with one of our specialist physical therapists.