When your middle or index fingertip touches your phone’s keypad, do you feel numbness?
Or maybe it feels like tingling, and it happens only when the fingertip makes contact with the keypad?
I’ve been noticing this for a while now with my own fingertip.
I use only my middle fingertip when hitting the numbers on the phone keypad to unlock the device, and also to make a phone call.
If this has been happening to you, are you worried that you might have a neurological disorder?
Before you begin losing sleep over this or allowing anxiety about it to rule your day, you’ll want to ask yourself some questions.
• Has the numbness, that began in your fingertip, spread down the finger or even into the hand?
• Does the numbness only occur as long as your fingertip is in the very brief contact with your phone’s surface?
• Does any pain come, as well, right when you tap your phone?
• Are your fingertips, fingers and hands perfectly fine otherwise?
• Have you tried contacting the keypad with as light a pressure as possible to see if this makes the numbness eventually stop occurring?
• Is there another activity that you engage in that puts pressure on your fingertips, that might possibly be bringing out the numbness only when you hit the keypad?
Common sense says that if the numbness has spread to the wrist and/or is accompanied by pain in the wrist, you should ask your primary care physician about this situation.
Now, in my case, the fingertip numbness only occurs when I tap at my phone’s keypad.
I’ve concluded that this is an overuse situation that’s been caused by repetitive tapping of the keypad.
However, I can’t rule out the possibility that my rock-wall climbing and fingertip strengthening on a hanging board have contributed, even though these activities don’t cause numbness.
See what happens when you give your finger a break; use another finger or a stylus for keypad contact.
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified through the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness she trained women and men of all ages for fat loss, increased strength, muscle building, and improved fitness and cardiovascular health.
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