I am set to have carpal tunnel surgery in a week and mentioned zinc to my other half and he's convinced that that is what's wrong with my hands, left arm and both wrists. I personally think it IS indeed carpal tunnel as was diagnosed and I should move forward with the surgery. I have used fixodent now for just under a year maybe. Never more than what they suggest. Had nerve conduction testing and it showed carpal tunnel, though truth be told that is what they were trying to diagnose or rule out. I am certain this is from the plush pile carpet and padding underneath we've been living on (I use a manual wheelchair to get around) and was FINE pain wise before we moved in at the end of 12'.

Teeth came out a month later, and I got the upper denture in June of 13'. Haven't used fixodent (the original one not powder) the entire time. So I'd say about 11-12 months I've used it. I've seen a study that says manual chair users are 75% more prone to developing carpal tunnel but that they risk goes down after 20 years of using a chair. I've been in one over 20 and suddenly in the past 6-8 month I've developed horrible pain, numbness that is almost constant in the right hand and wrist and what was diagnosed as tennis elbow in the left along with the carpal tunnel. I wanted to ask and see what your thoughts were Bryanna, thanks

Hi Pam!

Long time no see

Okay, a couple of things come to mind about your concern with zinc and carpal tunnel.

**It is best to avoid denture adhesives that contain zinc because irrelevant of how much you are applying on the denture, you are still continually absorbing it into your system and the absorption cannot really be measured. So there is no way to know how much you are actually getting. Try using an adhesive without zinc. The one that I generally recommend is called Secure Denture Adhesive. You can google that and come up with lots of different places to buy it.

**Zinc is actually beneficial for problems like carpal tunnel. Here is an interesting link: http://www.functionalmedicineunivers...public/808.cfm

**The problem with having the surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome is that you may continue to have pain and difficulty maneuvering your wheelchair due to the carpet.

**I think the main issue with your carpal tunnel is the carpeting. Is there any way you could remove the carpeting and put down flooring that does not require so much effort to maneuver the wheelchair? Ideally that would help you for the long run.

Bryanna