Contents:
- Medical Video: The Ironman and the Broken Clavicle
- The duration of healing for adults and children is different
- How long can you recover after breaking a collarbone?
- Tips for healing
Medical Video: The Ironman and the Broken Clavicle
Falling hard enough or having a traffic accident can make you break a collarbone. If that is the case, usually the doctor will perform several treatment measures from the start of drug administration, surgery, to therapy. If you do treatment according to the doctor's procedure, your condition will improve over time. So, how long does it take to recover after breaking a collarbone?
The duration of healing for adults and children is different
Everyone who has a broken collarbone heals at different times, depending on the severity, location of the broken bone, and age. Generally, adults need 6 to 8 weeks for a broken bone to heal. Meanwhile, children usually need 3 to 6 weeks.
The duration of recovery from fractures is faster in children because their bones are still capable of producing more collagen than adults. The amount of collagen produced by a child's bones is also more than the amount of lime (calcium) that it produces. Collagen makes the bones become more elastic so that it is easy to cure.
Meanwhile, adults are just the opposite. Adult bone produces more lime (calcium) than collagen. This makes the condition of the bone more dense and difficult to cure when broken.
How long can you recover after breaking a collarbone?
As described above, an average adult takes about 6-8 weeks to get rid of a broken collarbone. Even so, this time is not enough to restore shoulder strength as usual.
After recovering from a broken collarbone, you need an additional recovery time of approximately 16 weeks or about 4 months so that your shoulder is back to support and you can move as usual.
You are declared cured and ready to move as usual if:
- Can move arms and shoulders without pain.
- The doctor has confirmed the condition of your bones with X-rays.
During healing, lumps will appear like bruises on your collarbone. But don't worry because this is normal and will improve over time.
Remember, do not rush to do various daily activities if you still feel pain when moving your arms and shoulders. This indicates that your bones have not fully recovered. If you force yourself to do a variety of strenuous activities including exercise, it is not impossible that your collarbone will be broken again and the condition worsens.
Tips for healing
During the recovery period, you can do several ways to speed up recovery, such as:
- Use additional pillows to make sleeping more comfortable with your head higher than other body parts.
- Compress with ice in the broken part of the bone and experience bruising.
- Move your elbows, hands and fingers slowly after you feel able to do it.
- Don't do a variety of strenuous exercise 10 to 12 weeks after injury before the doctor allows it.
Treatment of broken collarbone, whether involving surgery or not, takes up to a matter of months to heal. Quoted from OrthoInfo, this healing process will be much longer in people with diabetes and smokers or people who use various tobacco products.
Therefore, try not to smoke while still recovering. After your doctor says your bones have recovered, you can return to various activities including safe exercise. Be sure to stay careful so you avoid danger that can break your collarbone.
