Finger joint replacement recovery takes about 3 months for everyday use and 6 months or more for the final result, with a day splint for 6 to 8 weeks and a night splint to around 3 months. Expect less pain and straighter fingers, not more movement or strength.
A fused joint usually knits in 8 to 12 weeks and most people are back to full use in 3 to 6 months. You lose movement at that one joint only: a fused wrist still turns palm up and palm down, and the work afterwards is keeping every neighboring joint moving.
A repaired nerve in the hand regrows at about a millimeter a day, and the final result takes 12 to 24 months to judge. Here’s the tingling sign you can track monthly at home, and the sensory re-education that decides how usable the hand ends up.
Cut off a fingertip? Press, raise the hand, wrap the part in damp gauze, bag it, put the bag in iced water, and go to the ER now. Most fingertip wounds without exposed bone heal in about 3 to 6 weeks; sensitivity takes months.
A PIP fracture-dislocation takes 6 to 12 weeks to heal, usually with 4 to 6 weeks in an extension block splint, and needs surgery if the joint won’t stay lined up. It only shows on a true side-on X-ray of that one finger.
A crushed fingertip’s bone usually heals in 3 to 4 weeks with a small splint. The nail decides the long-term result: drain a throbbing black nail early, and get a split, lifted or missing nail checked the same day for nail bed repair.
A broken finger usually takes 6 to 12 weeks to heal, with 3 to 6 weeks of protection in buddy tape or a splint. Before any of that, make a loose fist: a finger that crosses its neighbor means the bone is rotated.
If you suddenly can’t make a round OK sign, or can’t lift your fingers at the knuckles, and nothing is numb, think AIN or PIN palsy. Get assessed within days; many recover over 6 to 18 months, and your job meanwhile is keeping every joint moving.
A whole finger evenly swollen, resting bent, tender along the palm side and agony to straighten: those are Kanavel’s four signs of a flexor tendon sheath infection. Go to the ER now, then expect 6 to 12 weeks of hand therapy to keep the tendon gliding.
Red and swollen beside the nail is a paronychia, which often settles with warm soaks in a few days. A tense, throbbing fingertip pad is a felon, which usually needs draining the same day before it reaches bone.