You Should Question Your Doctor’s Sports Injury Advice – Here’s Why

You Should Question Your Doctor’s Sports Injury Advice – Here’s Why

June 21, 2020 0 By Sambit

When a sports-related injury strikes, many athletes make a trip to the Doctor’s.

If you’ve seen a doctor for a sports injury, you were probably advised to rest and “take this prescription for pain relief.” The problem with this advice is that it does not fix your injury – it simply subdues the symptoms.

The truth is that most types of doctors (such as primary care doctors) do not know how to appropriately treat sports related injuries.

Most experienced athletes are familiar with the cycle of visiting the doctor’s, getting prescribed pain medications or injections that cause unpleasant side-effects, and then returning to the doctor’s because the injury never healed.

Luckily, you don’t have to go through the hassle of making numerous doctor appointments for an injury that won’t heal. Perhaps you’re not one to take shortcuts in sport, but you’ll be relieved to hear that you can take shortcuts in sports injury treatment.

All you need to do is visit the right type of doctor.

You need to visit a sports injury specialist in Fort Myers, FL.

Sports injury specialists are healthcare professionals who help athletes of all levels prevent and cure sports-related injuries. Unlike many primary care doctors, sports injury specialists aim to fix the underlying cause of your sports injury rather than mask the symptoms.

When a sports injury specialist finds the root cause of your injury, you can rest assured that your injury will heal once and for all.

Many states allow patients to visit sport medicine specialists such as sports physical therapists without a referral, regardless of the type of insurance you have. If you must see your primary doctor first, ask for a referral to a sports injury specialist.

Here’s Who You Should See, Instead

There are a few different types of sports injury specialists, each with their own focus. Depending on the type of injury you have and area of the body that it affects, consider visiting one of the following sports injury specialists:

Chiropractor

Chiropractors diagnose and treat musculoskeletal and nervous system conditions by adjusting the spine and mobilizing joints through various manual techniques such as spinal manipulation and extremity adjustments.

Many athletes see chiropractors for spinal conditions such as back pain. Chiropractic treatment is a safer alternative to surgery and certain medications that are used to treat sports injuries.

The downside of visiting a chiropractor is that chiropractors tend to treat the injury only through manual adjustments to your spine and joints. This means that you should combine other types of treatment such as strengthening, stretching, and mobility exercises with chiropractic care.

Another drawback is that there is still some risk involved. While rare, there are cases of worsened injury, new injury, strokes, and even death that have occurred from chiropractic treatment.

If you decide to visit a chiropractor first, make sure to do your research. Look for local recommendations, patient testimonials, and of course, an up-to-date certification before you make an appointment with a chiropractor.

Orthopedist

If your injury is severe enough that surgery is on the table, an orthopedist can guide you in the right direction contact the-best-physical-therapist-near-me.

Orthopedic doctors have doctorates degrees and specialize in injuries of the joints, ligaments, bones, and skeleton. Many orthopedic doctors become orthopedic surgeons and can fix debilitating sports injuries such as severe ACL tears.

The idea of surgery is daunting, which is why most orthopedists will diagnose and assess the severity of your injury to see if surgery is truly necessary. In most cases, orthopedists find that surgery is (luckily) not required and will refer the patient to a sports physical therapist instead.

Podiatrist

Are you sick of achy feet, repeated sprained ankles, or those painful bumps on your toes (otherwise known as bunions)? A podiatrist can help.

Podiatrists are “foot and ankle” experts. They treat a variety of conditions that affect the feet and ankles, such as bunions, sprains, heel pain, and that funky looking smelly stuff on the bottom of your feet that you’re too embarrassed to tell anyone about (aka “athletes foot”).

Like orthopedists, some podiatrists perform surgery for foot and ankle problems that are not treatable through less invasive options such as physical therapy.

Podiatrists regularly prescribe orthotics along with strengthening exercises to cure sport related foot and ankle injuries.

Sports Physical Therapist

Sports physical therapists are our all-in-one sports injury experts.

With a doctoral degree in physical therapy, sports physical therapists are equipped to diagnose and treat injuries affecting any area of the body.

Do you have lower back pain that is killing your golf swing? Are your faulty knees preventing you from scoring the touchdown?

A sports physical therapist will hook you up with the most advanced and least invasive treatments to get rid of your injury for good.

Successful treatments commonly used by sports physical therapists include:

  • Manual Therapy – Some sports physical therapists use a variety of manual techniques to speed up the rehabilitation process, such as myofascial release (a massage technique that breaks up tight muscle tissue) and spinal traction (a technique in which the hands or a special tool is used to safely decompress the spine).
  • Mobility Exercises – If you have a poor range of motion (meaning that you can’t fully move your joints or certain body parts), your sports physical therapist will guide you through mobility exercises to heal your injury. These exercises increase your range of motion, thereby decreasing stiffness and pain.
  • Patient Education – Your sports physical therapist will educate you about your posture, sports technique, sports equipment, footwear, gait, and answer any questions you have about preventing and treating sports injuries.
  • Strengthening and Stretching Exercises – These exercises will help you regain strength and flexibility to knock out your injury once and for all. Your sports physical therapist will monitor you to ensure you’re performing the exercises correctly.

Seeing a sports physical therapist can save you from unnecessary prescriptions, injections, and surgeries. Athletes leave the sports physical therapy clinic stronger and more resilient to injury.

Are You Ready to Get Rid of Your Sports Injury Once and For All? Here’s a Quick & Easy Way to Get Started:

Are you sick and tired of getting tossed from doctor to doctor and getting prescriptions that hide the symptoms rather than heal your injury? Our expert team of sports physical therapists at Back in Motion Sport Spine Physical Therapy in Fort Myers, FL, can help you get rid of