Painless clicking as a wrist starts moving again after a fracture is common and usually settles.
A painful CLUNK when you turn your palm up and down, a wrist that feels unstable, or creaking over a plate when you move your fingers is different. Those can point to an injured ligament that was hurt in the same fall, or a tendon rubbing on hardware.
One pattern is urgent: creaking over the back of the wrist followed by a thumb that suddenly won’t lift. That can be a tendon rupture.
Clicks that usually mean nothing
- Painless pops as a stiff wrist regains range
- Occasional clicks that don’t come with swelling, weakness or instability
- Noise that gets quieter as strength and movement return
For clicking in wrists that were never broken, see wrist clicking and popping.
After a fracture, a click that hurts is information. Write down what movement causes it, and bring that to your appointment.
Clunks that need assessing
- A clunk on the little-finger side when you turn the palm up and down, sometimes with the end of the ulna looking more prominent: the joint between the forearm bones may be unstable, often with a TFCC injury. A fracture at the base of the small bony tip on that side can add to this
- A deep clunk in the middle of the wrist when you grip or load it: a ligament between the carpal bones may have been torn in the same fall. See scapholunate injury
- A snapping tendon on the little-finger side with rotation. See ECU subluxation
Hardware noises
- Creaking or catching over a plate when you move your fingers or thumb: a tendon may be rubbing on the plate edge or a screw tip. See wrist fracture plate surgery
- Why it matters: a tendon that rubs for long enough can fray and rupture. The thumb tendon on the back of the wrist is the classic example
- The warning: a thumb that suddenly can’t lift away from the hand, weeks or months after the fracture. See EPL rupture after a wrist fracture
- The fix, when hardware is the cause, is often removing the plate once the bone has healed
What to note before your review
- Which movement causes it: turning, gripping, bending the wrist, or moving the fingers
- Where you feel it: little-finger side, middle, thumb side, or over the scar
- Whether it hurts, and whether the wrist feels like it gives way
- A short video of the movement. Clicks are often shy in clinic
What helps in the meantime
- Avoid repeatedly reproducing a painful clunk
- A TFCC wrist brace for gripping and rotation tasks if the little-finger side is sore
- Keep up the exercises that don’t cause it. See wrist fracture exercises
Ligament and cartilage injuries don’t show on X-rays. An MRI or arthroscopy may be needed. See your MRI report.
Get it checked if
- You suddenly can’t lift your thumb: same week
- A painful clunk with turning or gripping
- The wrist feels like it gives way
- Creaking or catching over the plate when the fingers move
- Clicking that’s getting louder or more painful over weeks
Quiet clicks fade. Painful clunks and creaky plates need a look.
Every article on this site is written using the Closing Window Method: name the window your condition runs on, find where you are in it, and act while it’s still open.