What Causes Joint Pain?
Any type of damage to your joints (from injury or disease) can create joint pain and limit your movement. Many different conditions can cause joint pain, including but not limited to:
- Sprains and strains
- Fractures and other injuries
- Conditions like gout and bursitis
- Rheumatoid and osteoarthritis
- Post-traumatic arthritis (arthritis that develops following a joint injury)
Joint pain is very common and becomes an even more common occurrence as we age. If chronic joint pain is slowing you down, schedule an appointment with an orthopedic specialist to find out what is causing your pain and discuss your treatment options.
Dr. Daniel C. Valdez, board certified orthopedic surgeon, discusses causes of joint pain and your nonsurgical and surgical treatment options.
Dr. Sergio Viroslav, board certified orthopedic surgeon, discusses arthritis and your treatment options for joint pain related to arthritis.
Dr. Bryan W. Kaiser, board certified orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine specialist, discusses how to recognize knee pain that may be helped nonsurgically or surgically.
Dr. Daniel C. Valdez, board certified orthopedic surgeon, demonstrates joint replacement implants on Great Day SA.
With a TSAOG Joint Replacement Specialist
Your Joint Pain Treatment Options
Depending on the cause of your joint pain, there are many treatment options available to you.
Conservative treatment options include, but are not limited to:
- Medication – Medications such as anti-inflammatory drugs and muscle relaxants may be prescribed to alleviate your pain.
- Physical Therapy and Exercise – The application of a targeted exercise program can help to strengthen and stabilize the muscles around your painful joint, improving your range of motion. It can also help with weight loss, which limits the pressure you put on your joints through daily weight-bearing activities.
If conservative treatment is not successful, you would likely proceed to interventional methods, or joint injections. The most common joint injections both seek to alleviate pain and increase range of motion. They are:
- Steroid Injections – Steroid injections are used to treat inflammation, arthritis, and joint disease.
- Hyaluronic acid (or “rooster comb”) injections – Also referred to asviscosupplementation, hyaluronic acid injections are used to treat osteoarthritis (most commonly in the knee).
Finally, there are 2 main surgical options for dealing with joint pain:
- Arthroscopic Surgery – Arthroscopic surgery (or joint scope) is a minimally invasive surgical option which uses a small incision and arthroscope to view and operate on a damaged joint. In cases of joint pain, arthroscopic surgery can be used to clean out or repair the damaged area of the joint.
- Joint Replacement – If the joint is damaged beyond repair, the final option is joint replacement, which removes and replaces all or part of the damaged joint with an implant. The physicians of The San Antonio Orthopaedic Group currently offer:
PHYSICIANS
- W. Parker Abblitt, M.D.
- B. Christian Balldin, M.D.
- S. Josh Bell, M.D.
- Mickey S. Cho, M.D.
- Ronald W. Connor, M.D.
- Frank J. Garcia, M.D.
- Robert U. Hartzler, M.D.
- Alan E. Hibberd, M.D.
- Bryan W. Kaiser, M.D.
- Randall C. Marx, M.D.
- Anthony Montanez, M.D.
- G. Lane Naugher, M.D.
- Clayton W. Nuelle, M.D.
- Emmanuel C. Nwelue, M.D.
- Eloy Ochoa, Jr., M.D.
- Justin Robbins, M.D.
- Casey D. Taber, M.D.
- Brad S. Tolin, M.D.
- Richard L. Ursone, M.D.
- Sergio Viroslav, M.D.
PATIENT EDUCATION
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