What Is It?
It is estimated that 30-40% of all visits to a primary care physician are due to musculoskeletal issues. This means that something in the bony skeleton or muscles moving and protecting this skeleton are injured and/or causing pain. Other tissues that may fall into this category are ligaments, tendons, cartilage or the nerves which often pass through and around our bones becoming impinged or inflamed. A musculoskeletal injury may be a broken bone (fracture), muscle contusions, sprain or strain (often called soft tissue injury), torn tendons, or cartilage wear and tear. The resulting loss of function may include temporary immobility such as when your ankle is placed in a cast due to fracture, more prolonged immobility due to surgery to repair a torn Achilles tendon, or progressive loss of function as knee or hand arthritis causes cartilage to become worn, increasing joint pain and stiffness.
How We Treat It
By partnering with Aegis Therapies, we have enhanced approaches to assess and treat your orthopedic condition. Below are a few of the more common approaches:
- Temperature modalities (deep heat, superficial heat or cold)
- Therapeutic exercise
- Neuromuscular re-education
- Manual therapy
- Massage, including trigger point and/or myofascial release techniques
- Electro-physical agents such as electrical stimulation or ultrasound to decrease pain, swelling, trigger point sensitivity and increase function.
