Smashed Finger: Treatment, Recovery, Seeking Help, And More

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Treatment and Recovery for a Smashed Finger

Medically reviewed by Meredith Goodwin, MD, FAAFP — Written by Jennifer Huizen — Updated on November 26, 2024

Immediate relief
Recovery
Bruised fingernail
Avoid
Seek help
Takeaway

A smashed finger is a type of finger injury. You may experience severe pain, bruising, stiffness, or loss of sensation. It usually heals on its own with rest, ice, and other pain relief strategies.

If you’ve ever caught your finger in a door or hit it with a hammer, you’ve probably experienced common symptoms of a smashed finger. Any trauma or injury to your finger can lead to:

severe finger pain, especially aching and throbbing pain
inflammation (pain, redness, and swelling)
difficulty moving the fingertip
loss of sensation in the fingertip
bruising and color change of the skin and fingernail
stiffness in your finger

The fingernail on the smashed finger may also fall off within a week or two of the injury.

Read on to learn more about treating a smashed finger and when you need to seek help.

Immediate relief

The best way to get immediate relief from a smashed finger is to treat inflammation. Inflammation is the primary cause of pain, swelling, and redness or discoloration.

Common tips for treating a smashed finger include:

Stop and assess

Once you’ve hurt yourself, stop whatever you’re doing to prevent further injury.

As painful as it may be, try to calmly assess the damage and whether you’ll need medical attention. While more minor injuries may heal on their own, seek medical attention if you’re experiencing persistent bleeding or if you think the finger is broken.

Clean and cover open wounds

If the nail or skin is broken, gently clean the area using soap and water or an antibacterial rinse. Then, cover the wound with sterile gauze or bandages.

Wounds should be cleaned, and new dressings should be applied at least twice daily.

Never splint or brace an injured finger without talking with your doctor first.

Apply ice

The cold from the ice can help stop bleeding and prevent a blood blister from forming under the nail.

Very gently apply ice wrapped in a hand towel or cloth to the injured finger for up to 20-minute intervals, several times daily. Avoid exposing the skin directly to ice.

To avoid putting weight on the injury, rest the finger on top of a covered ice compress or pack.

Elevate

Raising the injured finger above the level of your heart slows the flood of blood to the site. This can help reduce inflammation and ease throbbing pain.

Use over-the-counter (OTC) pain relief

OTC anti-inflammatory and pain medications like ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin), acetaminophen (Tylenol), and aspirin can help reduce inflammation and associated pain.

OTC antibiotic ointments or creams can also be applied to the wounds after cleaning sessions to help prevent infection.

Pain-relieving medicated creams and herbal formulas can also help reduce inflammation and pain. Arnica may help reduce inflammation and improve the healing time of bruises.

Make sure you can move your finger

While rest is important to healing, try to also keep gently moving the finger as much as possible without increasing your pain.

If you can’t move your finger, seek medical attention.

Long-term treatment and recovery

Resting, icing, elevating, keeping the area clean, and using OTC pain relievers are the recommended course of treatment for a smashed finger. Symptoms should start to improve after a few days of basic care.

A painful bruise may develop at the injury site after the initial swelling goes down. Depending on the location of the injury and its severity, the bruise may cause throbbing, aching, or numbness.

Once the initial pain and swelling improve, you should increasingly try to stretch and move the injured finger. Avoid any movements or actions that cause your pain to increase significantly.

Gently massaging the injury site and the surrounding area can help improve recovery time by encouraging blood flow to the site. This can also help break up dead blood cells and tissues.

The recovery time for a smashed finger depends largely on the severity of the injury and location. Most smashed fingers start to feel much better within three to four days. More complicated or severe cases may take a few weeks or more to fully heal.

Treating a bruised fingernail

When a bruise develops under the fingernail, pressure can build up and become painful.

If this pressure becomes severe, the fingernail may fall off. In most cases, though, your fingernail will remain in place, but you may notice discoloration around the site of the injury.

The bruise may remain visible for several months until the affected portion of the nail grows out.

If there’s significant injury to the base of the nail, you have trouble controlling bleeding, or the pressure becomes too painful, call your doctor.

What to avoid

While your finger is healing, it’s a good idea to stay away from any activities that increase pain or involve a lot of finger strain. It may take a few weeks before it’s safe to return to activities like physical or contact sports.

You also shouldn’t attempt to remove an injured nail yourself, or wrap, splint, or brace the injured finger.

When to seek help

Speak with a doctor or nurse if your smashed finger causes extreme pain or involves more than just the fingertip. You should also seek medical help if:

you can’t straighten your finger
the finger is noticeably bent or crooked
you have a deep wound that may require stitches
your fingernail bed, finger joints, knuckle, palm, or wrist are also injured
symptoms like pain and swelling are not improving

The takeaway

A smashed finger is a common injury that involves trauma to the finger. It can lead to pain, stiffness, swelling, and bruising.

Ice, elevation, keeping the injury clean, and using OTC pain relief are generally the best ways to heal from a smashed finger. This type of injury usually starts to heal on its own after a few days of at-home care.

Seek medical attention if you have a deep wound that may require stitches, if you suspect you may have broken your finger, or if symptoms don’t start to improve with basic treatment.

How we reviewed this article:

SourcesHistoryHealthline has strict sourcing guidelines and relies on peer-reviewed studies, academic research institutions, and medical journals and associations. We only use quality, credible sources to ensure content accuracy and integrity. You can learn more about how we ensure our content is accurate and current by reading our editorial policy.

Crush injuries of the fingertip. (2023).https://www.nationwidechildrens.org/conditions/crush-injuries-of-the-fingertip
Finger fractures. (2022).https://orthoinfo.aaos.org/en/diseases--conditions/finger-fractures/
Mutlu S, et al. (2020). The effect of soft tissue injury cold application duration on symptoms, edema, joint mobility, and patient satisfaction: A randomized controlled trial.https://www.jenonline.org/article/S0099-1767(20)30060-X/abstract
Smashed fingers. (2023).https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/000018.htm
Subungual hematoma. (n.d.).https://www.aocd.org/page/SubungualHematoma

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Medically reviewed by Meredith Goodwin, MD, FAAFP — Written by Jennifer Huizen — Updated on November 26, 2024

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