I got my right pinky finger jammed 3 weeks ago due to basketball. But I was immediately brought to the hospital ang got it xrayed then pulled it back in place by the doctor then xrayed it again. It was back in normal but I was told to put on a cast for a week. After the first week i got it removed but I still couldn’t move it. Well i was told to put a finger splint then apply warm towel on it and try bending it, but in these past weeks I can’t even bend it so well. When i do try it it’s just like it gets stuck in not even halfway. I’ve been in splint for four weeks now and I’m afraid that it might not be able to bend anymore. Can anyone help me? How long usually does a dislocated finger heal/be able to bend? Do I need to do exercises and what kind? Do I need to go to the doctor again? Or is this finger cannot be moved anymore? TT

So sorry for the long post but can anyone please help me and answer this? I’m kind of panicking already hahaha. Thank you to whoever who answers.

I dislocated mine biking in Chamonix and just pulled it back in myself (no doctors up the mountain). It probably took a few months to get full movement back and all the swelling to go down. Yes you should excersize it, just wiggle it at the joint – lots of small movements to start with. Do this multiple times a day.

It does take a while at least a couple of months before its something like normal. Keep it moving as much as possible.
One piece of advice – don’t go chasing the cat on wet decking after 3 months and fall over breaking the end of the same finger – it takes much longer to heal then and ends up being bent!

I did my ring finger last Monday fell-jogging. Pulled it back in (surprisingly easily) and used ice a bit and Ibuprofen. Swelling much reduced now and ~75% movement. Tender to touch the joint, but hasn’t stopped me doing much. I wonder if getting them back in quickly reduces problems?

Hi and thanks for your replies. I would like to ask a question again. To those of you who experienced this, for how many months was your dislocated finger immobile? This is now the seventh week and its movement is still like that of the fourth week XDD Thank you again! XD

Time to go back to the doc and get it checked. GP should do it and then a decent hand physio

My finger went back in pretty much straight away so it’s a different case but I would say it took mine about 6 months to get anything like good movement back – but see above, that included breaking the end as well.
I’d get back to the docs with it if it’s not getting any better but I think as well you need to be manipulating it to aid the healing process and getting the movement back in it. I kept mine moving which seemed to help and now its almost back to normal apart from being a bit bent and an oversized knuckle.

@jvft, similar experience to me. By all means visit the doctor but I think you need to just keep wiggling it little by little. Too late to try icing it to reduce swelling/free it up. It was many months before I had full movement and perhaps a year before all the swelling went down completely (I am 50 so human growth hormone in short supply to natural fix up this sort of thing)

I’ve broken and dislocated many of my fingers and thumbs playing rugby and have always without doubt found immobilising them is the worst thing to do for fast recovery and being able to use thrm properly quickly……dislocations I always taped them to the adjacent finger and carried on playing and after a day or so remove strapping and get on using the finger carefully…..obviously bracing them when playing with tape for a couple of weeks.
Breaks a couple of weeks longer taped to the adjacent finger.
There is a caveat that I would add at this point, I’m 49 and now have arthritis in some of my previously broken and dislocated joints 😆

Took me around 18 months of hourly physio to get full range of movement back into my finger.