A burn can damage your nerves and tissues and reduce their function. It is highly restrictive with upper extremity burns and scarring. Mary Woodbury, OTR/L, CHT, specializes in occupational hand therapy for burns and scarring at Hand Therapy Treatment and Education Center, LLP, in Brunswick, Maine. Call the office today or schedule an appointment online for upper extremity burn rehabilitation.
Burns are skin and soft-tissue injuries caused by heat, chemicals, radiation, or electricity. While minor burns, like sunburns, heal on their own and might not require medical treatment, other burns are severe enough to damage your nerves and muscles.
Medical professionals grade burns in three different stages:
A first-degree burn, the mildest type, only affects your skin’s epidermis (top layer). The main symptoms are redness and discomfort.
Second-degree burns are more severe than first-degree burns, damaging the second layer of your skin, called the dermis. In addition to redness and pain, you might see swelling, blisters, and eventual scarring.
Third-degree burns reach the layer of fat beneath your skin. They can destroy the nerves within that layer to cause numbness and motor dysfunction.
Hand Therapy Treatment and Education Center, LLP, provides personalized rehab to restore function to your upper extremity. Typically, this involves:
Scars from a burn can be firm, hard, and painful and restrict your mobility. Compression therapy can smooth and flatten scars, while splinting helps you regain mobility from a restrictive scar.
Various exercises that you practice regularly help you regain strength and function after an upper extremity burn.
Some treatments use heat, cold, energy, or other assistive components that can reduce pain and inflammation caused by a burn.
Many burns go beyond your skin into deeper layers of muscle and tissue. As a result, you lose much of the function you had before. This can make everyday tasks that were once simple much more challenging.
Your provider at Hand Therapy Treatment and Education Center, LLP, helps you set realistic goals to work toward during your time in occupational therapy. After a burn, hand therapy can:
Reaching these goals can take time, but you’ll see immense progress with consistency and dedication.
Schedule an appointment today over the phone or online at Hand Therapy Treatment and Education Center, LLP, to rehabilitate an injured upper extremity with personalized care.