Excruciating pain in your back, muscles, and joints can affect you in much more ways than you can think. It can keep you from playing your favorite sports or doing your favorite activity like gardening and affect your work life.
Sometimes the pain improves with at-home treatments or treatments that your go-to or primary care doctor provides. Other times, especially when your primary care doctor fails to find the underlying cause of your pain, you need expert care.
An orthopedic doctor is a person who can provide expert, highest-quality medical care for your musculoskeletal system conditions and injuries. But since orthopedics is a very broad field, it may be challenging for you to know when you need to see an orthopedic doctor.
Let’s talk about five telltale signs you need to see an orthopedic doctor and where you can find the best orthopedic doctor in Little Rock, AR.
Acute Injury of Soft Tissues
Injuries affecting soft tissues (muscles, tendons, ligaments, and nerves) are all too common. These injuries can occur during sports, physical activities,accidents, or significant falls.
Strains, sprains, busted knees, tendon tears, and ligament tears, among others, are the most commonly occurring acute injuries of soft tissues that result in pain, swelling, and loss of range of motion.
Your first approach to treating these injuries should be rest, ice, and compression. However, if adequate rest, as well as home remedies, have not provided your enough relief, see an orthopedic doctor.
An orthopedic doctor can pinpoint the underlying cause of your pain and provide effective treatments for your injury.
Chronic Pain
Chronic or long-standing pain lasts longer than 12 weeks and doesn’t improve with rest, medications, and other home measures.
Chronic pain can have several underlying causes, and to get rid of this pain, you must pinpoint the cause and address it. No matter the cause of your chronic pain, an orthopedic can reach it and address it to provide you relief.
Limited Range of Motion
When a joint doesn’t move the way it normally would, the joint is considered to have a limited range of motion.
The range of motion of the joint becomes limited naturally as you grow age. However, certain health conditions, such as arthritis, can also make your joints feel tighter and tighter.
A limited range of motion, if not treated timely and effectively, can make your life difficult later on. So, it’s a good idea to see an orthopedic doctor as soon as you notice any change in the range of motion of your joints.
Potential Fracture
A fracture is when a sudden trauma or too much pressure on the bones causes them to break or crack. Conditions in which your bones are constantly and repetitively placed under stress and conditions that decrease the density of your bones, such as osteoporosis, can put your bones at risk for fracture.
If you have intense sharp pain, swelling, numbness, bleeding, and bruising and suspect a fracture, see an orthopedic doctor immediately.
Balance or Mobility Issues
Our musculoskeletal system provides us stability and helps us maintain our balance while moving. So, when something goes wrong with any part of the musculoskeletal system, we experience mobility and balance problems.
Common conditions leading to balance and mobility problems are arthritis, nerve damage, muscle weakness, ankle sprains, and fractures. See an orthopedic doctor if you have mobility or balance problems due to any such condition.
Orthopedic Doctor in Little Rock, AR
If you have the above-mentioned signs or other problems related to your musculoskeletal system, it’s best to seek care from a board-certified orthopedic surgeon. Our highly trained and skilled orthopedic surgeon, Dr. William Hefley, can provide expert diagnosis and treatment for your orthopedic problems and conditions so that you can get back to activities you enjoy.
To know more about our services or schedule a consultation with our orthopedic doctor, call us today at (800) 336-2412 or fill out our secure online appointment request form.
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