Sterling Silver Finger Splints Provide Fashionable Therapy for Arthritis Sufferers

Arthritis sufferers now have a great alternative to the cumbersome, unattractive — and often embarrassing — finger splints of yesteryear. They’re called SIRIS splints and they’re designed in sterling silver or karat gold to look like fine jewelry. One TV commentator appropriately called them “bling with a purpose.”

People struggling with advanced arthritis are often prescribed splint therapy to hold their painful joints in place, but the bottom line is that splints can’t provide pain relief if they are not worn.

Common splints don’t fit under gloves, can’t slide through sleeves and must be removed when washing one’s hands. They may also be the source of embarrassment in social situations when the bulky device draws attention to one’s “problem.”

SIRIS splints elegantly counter all of these objections. The stylish marriage of form and function, the sleek, lightweight, easily adjusted precious-metal splints were invented by occupational therapist Cynthia Garris when she was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and was facing long-term splint therapy.

Unwilling to settle for the options being prescribed at the time, she set out to design a new series of splints that patients would be proud to wear.

The result was a beautiful line of sterling silver ring splints that therapists may order to provide relief for a wide variety of hand ailments, such as hyperextension, lateral instability, flexion, MCP deviations, thumb problems and triggering.

One blogger, who suffers from a rare disease that makes her joints unstable, called the SIRIS rings “nothing short of a miracle.”

“When you put up with something like this your whole life, you just get used to it,” she wrote. “Now, I’m getting used to not having pain for the first time, and it’s nothing short of a miracle.”

Another customer wrote: “It is difficult to accept the diagnosis of a life-long debilitating disease, but I have found that explaining the purpose of my ‘beautiful rings’ has helped me with the healing process.”

The devices are generally priced from $85 to $395, but may be custom-ordered in 14-karat gold and embellished with a variety of precious gemstones. The company’s web site is at www.silverringsplint.com.