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Step 1
Look for swelling, the most common symptom of broken wrists. Bruising may indicate a fracture too.
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Step 2
Study your wrist. Obviously if the bone breaks the skin as it does in an open fracture, there's no question that you need immediate treatment. Sometimes broken wrists appear to be at an angle.
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Step 3
Decide if you are suffering from pain or tenderness in the wrist. Perhaps you experience difficulty in holding heavier things in your hand.
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Step 4
Pinpoint the exact location of the pain. If it's near the thumb area, you may have the more difficult to diagnose scaphoid fracture. Sometimes confused with sprained wrists, scaphoid fractures can't always be seen in a traditional X-ray and may require an MRI for diagnosis.
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Step 5
Remember what activity preceded the problems with your wrist. Wrist fractures almost always come with some type of a trauma, like falling or a blow to the wrist.
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Step 6
Consider your age. A common break called Colles' fracture occurs most often in older people, where osteoporosis causes brittle bones. This break of the major radius bone shows itself when the hand looks like it's twisted back and out from the forearm.
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Step 7
Go for an X-ray. This is the most common way that doctors diagnose broken wrists. Fractures tend to be about an inch from the end of the bone. Sometimes broken wrists show up on X-rays as a small increase in density on top of the irregular surface of the bone.
