How to Know If Your Ring Is Too Small

How To Tell If Your Ring Is Too Small

Getting that pinch mark on your ring finger? Feeling like your hands don’t have the right circulation?

Whether it’s just a wedding band or you’re rocking bling on every finger, when your bands get too tight, it becomes a big problem.

Wearing a too small ring can actually be a health concern, scar your skin, and leave a permanent indent on your finger as well, which can make future ring sizing problematic, to say the least.

We’re going to show you how to tell if your ring is too small, and discuss the real details of what it could mean if you aren’t careful.

Contents

What to do if Your Ring is Too Small?

If you have a silicone band, then the only solution is to purchase a larger ring. This doesn’t sound like a fun option given the fact that you’ve just spent money on a silicone band, but even when you compare the cost of two silicone rings to a gold band, you’re still saving money.

Silicone bands can shrink slightly (which we have a guide one “Can you shrink silicone rings?”), but they cannot be stretched out by an entire two sizes without damaging the integrity of the ring. When you put on a new silicone band, it’s supposed to be a snug fit because it slightly expands to the size of your finger.

Some Signs That Your Ring is Too Small

Some Signs That Your Ring Is Too Small

If you’re curious and don’t actually know if your ring is too small, go through these exercises to determine it for yourself.

  • Your Ring Won’t Come Off: The surefire way to tell if it’s too small is if you can’t wiggle it off. A ring is supposed to be snug on your finger so it doesn’t slide off from simply hanging your hands by your side, but it shouldn’t be so tight that it cannot come off your finger at all. If you can wiggle it left and right and have it off your finger in a couple of seconds, it’s thankfully not too small.
  • It Doesn’t Turn: Your ring should be able to turn without issues. Some rings, like spinners, can turn because of a secondary band on top of the base band. You should be able to turn the ring band whenever you feel like it without there being a problem. Plenty of people do this when they’re nervous, so if you find yourself fiddling with your ring and it doesn’t move, then you know it’s too small.
  • Tingly Fingers: Your hands are just resting on your desk while you read this, or sitting on your lap while you watch TV. All of a sudden, your ring finger in question is tingling. That’s because the nerves are being pressed on, and blood flow is being restricted. That’s your body’s way of telling you something really isn’t right.
  • Chubby Fingers: Look at your finger. Does it seem like a tight belt that’s pushing down on your finger skin? If you can notice plumes of skin on either side that look squeezed or compressed, then your ring is too small. As a caveat to this, it doesn’t mean you’re as bad off as you think; it could just be a very tad bit too small. You could have had a lot of salt that day and you’re retaining water, so don’t immediately resize or buy a new ring; give it a few days first, provided that this is your only symptom of a too-small ring.

Chances are if you’re looking at this, then you’re already facing some of the problems of a too-small ring and just wanted to double-check. That’s why silicone rings are a step-up; they can stretch and expand to come off if you end up outgrowing them, and you can avoid all of these problems.

What Are the Dangers of a Too-Small Ring?

Number one, absolutely chief among all the risks, is ring avulsion. This basically means that force meets your ring, and due to the ring being stuck on your finger, the force pulls your finger out of place. It’s not like a popped shoulder; you can’t just push it back into where it’s supposed to go.

Ring avulsion requires something called micro surgery, where surgeons actually have to use microscopes to work on soft tissue and ligaments in your finger to basically reattach it.

If you’re a fan of Jimmy Fallon, you might recall his ring avulsion story, when he brought this issue to the world’s knowledge in 2015 after slipping on a braided mat in his kitchen, and hitting his hand off of the counter. Here’s the clip.

But apart from ring avulsion being the major problem, there are other risks that come with a too-small ring that we want to talk about.

  • Circulatory Problems: Blood travels through your hands, and when you put too much pressure on these small veins, it can eventually cause enough damage to them and not allow proper blood flow throughout your hand. In extreme cases, it can lead to permanent swelling or amputation, though the latter is rare.
  • Pain: It can just hurt your finger while it’s too tight, and nobody wants to deal with that. Nerves can become aggravated, and discomfort can linger for one to three days even after you remove the ring. If you’re wearing a ring that starts to cause you pain, it’s time to remove it.
  • Inflammation: Inflammation is the body’s natural response to a problem, and when your finger is inflamed (usually on rings that are dangerously too tight), it’s your body’s way of telling you that it needs to be remedied. The thing is, inflammation is good for fixing unseen problems in the body, but overall a bad thing.

Some of these problems just sort of blend into the background after a while if we aren’t careful. Eventually, you tolerate finger pain because it’s been happening for so long.

Or you just don’t notice the circulatory problems and tingling because it’s become commonplace. I still have a spot on my left ring finger that’s indented because I outgrew my wedding band. I’m lucky ring avulsion didn’t happen to me.

What to do About it?

Avoiding ring avulsion is going to be your top priority, no matter what. It’s a serious thing that can immediately cause you to lose a finger.

To put it lightly, you have a very low rate of actually keeping your finger. When we look at Jimmy Fallon’s famous story, he’s lucky to still have that impacted finger.

If you have a silicone band, you can shrink it using our guide located here. Basically, it involves boiling water, far too much time, and a lot of stress if you don’t get it right.

The issue is, if you boil your band to manipulate it into bending to your will, then it could void the warranty. Some brands for silicone rings, like Enso and Qalo, have lifetime warranties and offer replacements, but with stipulation.

Returning a melted-looking ring is going to tell them that you didn’t use it for its intended purpose, and they may renege on the warranty, as they have the right to do. It’s much better to just contact the seller of your silicone ring, and request an exchange for a different size. We advise you to read the information on how to choose the silicone ring sizes.

However, if you have a metal band, be prepared to be without it for a while, and pay a considerable amount of money. You have to go to the jewelers, and trust them with your ring.

They have to usually send it out to a facility (since most jewelers don’t do this stuff in-house), where a small section of the ring will be removed, and the band will be rejoined at a smaller size.

This involves shipping to the location, the actual jewelry craftsman to do the work, cooling and finishing, and shipping it back to the store. That, and the jeweler is going to take a chunk of the change as well.

Typically, you can pay up to about $200 per ring to get it resized depending on where you go.

Cheaper resizing is usually done strictly online where you ship it to an address provided by a reseller, but for a wedding band – something important that you want to hold onto for the rest of your life – that just doesn’t feel like a smart thing to do.

Now You Know

Now that you know just how serious a too tight metal ring can actually be, it’s time to make the switch to silicone.

If you fancy, we have a few guides on the best silicone rings for men and women, which show you the cream of the crop, and discuss some of the finer details about switching to a silicone band. Check them out, make your decision, and leave that metal in the past.

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