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.
Wrist Involvement: Carpal Tunnel?
“The median nerve passes through the bony tunnel of the wrist joint and gives sensation to the palmar side of the thumb, index, middle and part of the ring fingers,” says Dr. David Beatty, MD, a retired general practitioner with 30+ years of experience and an instructor of general medicine for 20 years.
“If the median nerve is compressed, squeezed or tapped, this can cause pain into the palm of the hand and altered sensation, tingling or pins and needles where the nerve supplies,” continues Dr. Beatty.
“Many people using a phone will rest their wrist on a table or have their wrist in a flexed position.
“Persistent pressure on the palm side of the wrist or persistent wrist flexion can irritate the median nerve.”
Not Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
Now, in my case, the fingertip numbness only occurs when I tap at my phone’s keypad — whether or not my wrist is resting on something or in a flexed position (hand bent downward).
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.
Update on My “Phone Fingertip” Numbness
Within a month of posting this article, I’ve noticed that the numbness in my middle fingertip has completely disappeared.
This is a result of avoiding using my middle finger on my phone’s keypad, and switching over to my index or fourth finger.
Of course, it’s possible that the index fingertip will eventually develop a similar numbness, but if that happens, I’ll switch back to the middle.
The key is to switch up the fingertips instead of using only the same one all the time when operating your mobile device.
Also make sure that your wrist isn’t pressing into something, such as a desk edge, when using your phone.
Neck Involvement
“Many mobile phone users will have their heads down looking at their phones,” says Dr. Beatty.
“This often puts the neck in a flexed position for a long period of time (take a look at the average teenager).
“It’s possible that the neck flexion could pinch a nerve as it comes out from the cervical [neck] spine — causing irritation of nerves in the hand.
“This is another, less likely, cause of fingertip numbness when using a phone.”
Dr. Beatty has worked in primary medicine, surgery, accident and emergency, OBGYN, pediatrics and chronic disease management. He is the Doctor of Medicine for 
