According to the American Association for Hand Surgery, there are between 3,000 and 4,000 hand surgeons operating throughout the U.S. It should make it relatively easy for you to find a hand doctor when you’re in the market for one.

Whether you have a broken hand, a lingering finger injury, tingling in your hands, or one of the many hand emergencies, you shouldn’t hesitate to call on a hand doctor for help right away. But you should be aware of the fact that not all hand doctors are created equal.

Ideally, your goal should be to track down the best hand doctors possible. They’ll be able to help you with your hand emergency and nurse you back to health in no time at all.

In this article, we’re going to list 12 tips for choosing a professional hand doctor. It should make your search for a hand surgeon you can trust so much easier.

Take a look at these tips below.

1. List as Many Local Hand Doctors as You Can

As we alluded to earlier, there are thousands of hand doctors scattered throughout the country right now. This should include at least a few great options in your area.

With this in mind, you’ll want to start your search for a hand surgeon by Googling something like “hand doctors near me.” It’ll give you a glimpse at just how many options exist in your city.

From there, you should jot down the names and contact information for as many local hand doctors as you can find. It’ll put you in a position to start working your way through these options so that you’re able to pick the best one of the bunch.

2. Check the Locations of Hand Doctors

When you Google “hand doctors near me,” it should provide you with mostly hand doctors that are in the general vicinity of your home. But there might be a few that you’ll find situated in other nearby cities.

You’re welcome to consider these options if you’d like. But it might take you some time to get to the offices of these hand surgeons.

You’ll be so much better off selecting a hand surgeon that is actually located in your immediate area. It’ll make it simpler to get to and from their office while you’re getting treatment from them.

3. Research Each of the Hand Doctors You Find

After you’ve narrowed down the list of hand doctors to only those in your area, you can begin trying to discover more about each of them. You should be able to do this by visiting their websites to see what each of them is all about.

On a hand doctor’s website, you’ll be able to find out:

How much experience they have when it comes to treating people’s hands
Where they went to school while working toward becoming a hand doctor
Which hand procedures they specialize in performing
What their philosophy is when it comes to treating hands
And so much more

Don’t stop until you feel like you know just about everything there is to know about a hand doctor. It’ll allow you to start crossing some names off your list of options.

4. See Which Conditions Hand Doctors Can Help With

While you’re researching different hand doctors in your area, one thing you should pay close attention to is which conditions they’re able to treat. The more conditions they can help patients with, the greater the chances of them being able to provide you with the treatment you need.

Here are just some of the conditions that the best hand doctors will be able to treat for you:

Hand, Wrist, and Finger Tendinitis
Hand Numbness and Tingling
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
Trigger Finger
Osteoarthritis of the Thumb Joint

The last thing you want to do is start working with a hand doctor only to discover that they’re very limited in what they can treat. This might force you to scramble later to find a different doctor that can help.

5. Learn About the Treatment Options Hand Doctors Offer

The best doctors are going to be able to do more than just treat a wide range of finger, hand, wrist, and even elbow conditions. They’ll also utilize the latest and most innovative treatment options to provide you with the relief you’re looking for.

Let’s say, for example, that you’re battling carpal tunnel syndrome and need to find a hand doctor that can help. You won’t want to get stuck working with a hand surgeon that is going to cut your hand open and put you through a lengthy recovery process by using an outdated treatment for it. It’ll quickly turn into a nightmare for you.

Instead, you’ll want to find a hand doctor who will use the “no stitch” endoscope procedure that has started to gain in popularity. This procedure will be minimally invasive and quick, and you’ll be able to recover from it fast. It also has a 98% success rate, which should help put your mind at ease going into it.

6. Read Online Reviews for Hand Doctors

Here’s the thing about researching hand doctors when you need to find one: Almost all of them are going to make themselves look like great options. Their websites will be set up in such a way that it’ll appear as though you can’t go wrong by picking any of them.

But this is, of course, not going to be the case. There will be some hand doctors that will be better than others. You should be able to figure out which ones will be the best by reading through their online reviews.

If a hand surgeon has a large number of recent online reviews that are all positive in nature, you’ll know you’re going to be in good hands while working with them. They’ll have the kind of reputation that you’ll want your hand doctor to have.

But if a hand surgeon has a lot of negative reviews or, maybe worse, no reviews at all, that’s going to be a big red flag. You’ll want to stay far away from any doctors who fall into this category. It’s why reading reviews will come in handy.

7. Ask Family and Friends to Recommend Hand Doctors

Do you happen to know any family or friends who have visited hand surgeons as of late? If so, you shouldn’t be shy about asking them to provide you with insight on which doctors you should consider.

There might be one hand doctor who you hear mentioned over and over again while asking around for recommendations. You might also hear the names of hand surgeons that people tell you not to work with under any circumstances.

Either way, your family and friends should be able to serve as valuable resources when you’re on the hunt for a great hand doctor.

8. Find Out Which Hand Doctors Take Your Insurance

If you end up needing to have surgery on your hand, it could prove to be pretty costly. But fortunately, your health insurance policy should cover all or at least some of the costs that’ll come along with having your hand operated on.

Because of this, you will want to make sure you call on a hand doctor for help who is in your health insurance company’s network. Otherwise, you might be forced to foot the bill for the cost of your surgery.

Your health insurance company should be able to supply you with a list of the local hand surgeons in your area who are in their network. You can cross-reference this list with your own list and remove any doctors that aren’t going to accept your insurance.

9. See How Soon Hand Doctors Have Appointments

If you aren’t in a big rush to see a hand doctor, you might not need to worry about when their next available appointments are. You can take whichever appointment you’re able to get in the future.

But if you have a true hand emergency, you won’t be able to wait for months, weeks, or maybe even days on end to seek a hand surgeon. You’ll need to make an appointment with them ASAP, which means you’ll need to find a doctor who has appointments available in the not-too-distant future.

When you start reaching out to different hand surgeons, one of the first things you should ask about is their availability. You may be able to eliminate any doctors who are all booked up for the foreseeable future.

10. Inquire About Seeing Hand Doctors Virtually

Since the COVID-19 pandemic has drawn to a close, many hand doctors and doctors, in general, have stopped offering virtual appointments. But some have also continued to provide them to patients who would like to go in this direction.

If you’re interested in seeing a hand doctor virtually, you should focus your search on only the hand surgeons who have virtual appointments available. This is another thing you should ask about as soon as you touch base with a doctor.

11. Consider the Customer Service Hand Doctors Provide

When you reach this point in your search for a hand doctor, you will have likely had conversations with at least a few of their employees while contacting them for information. These conversations should have shed some light on how good their customer service is or, in some cases, isn’t.

You’re going to spend your fair share of time communicating with those who work in a doctor’s office. From making appointments to asking follow-up questions, you’ll need to speak with them early and often.

For this reason, you shouldn’t ever settle for a hand doctor who doesn’t make customer service a top priority for everyone in their office. It could lead to you having unpleasant conversations with the people who work for them.

Having any kind of surgical procedure done to your hand can be stressful in and of itself. You don’t want to have to deal with rude employees at a hand surgeon’s office to make matters even worse.

12. Choose the Hand Doctor Who Makes You Feel Comfortable

At the end of the day, the best hand doctor for you is going to be the one who makes you feel the most comfortable. You should be able to develop a great rapport with them from almost the moment you start talking to them about the hand issues you’re having.

If you go to visit a hand doctor and they don’t give you a good feeling, you shouldn’t settle for working with them. You’ll struggle to have confidence in a doctor like this, and it might make having a hand-related procedure even more difficult than you could have imagined.

The best hand surgeons will be kind to their patients. They’ll also practice patience and make sure they answer any and all questions their patients have.

You deserve to be treated like this from beginning to end after choosing a hand surgeon. The option you choose should check all the right boxes for you and have you looking forward to seeing them again.

Let Us Be Your Trusted Hand Doctor

Are you in need of a hand doctor right now and looking high and low trying to find one? We would encourage you to give Hand Surgery Specialists of Texas a call so that you can find out how we can help you.

It doesn’t matter if you’re dealing with a condition like carpal tunnel syndrome that’s been bothering you for months or seeking treatment for a finger injury you just sustained. We can set you up with the best hand doctors in the business and prevent you from having to live with pain anymore.

12 Tips for Choosing a Professional Hand Doctor