Joint Pain
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Texas Pain & Orthopedics
Pain Management, Sports Medicine and Regenerative Orthopedics located in Pflugerville, TX
Joint injuries or conditions like arthritis can severely limit your mobility in addition to the pain they cause. If you’re having problems with joint pain, fellowship-trained pain management expert Ike Malik, MD, of Texas Pain & Orthopedics in Pflugerville, Texas, can help. Joints that are particularly vulnerable to damage and pain are the hip, knee, shoulder, and elbow. Dr. Malik specializes in relieving pain in these and other joints. To find out more about the cutting-edge treatments available at Texas Pain & Orthopedics, call the office today or book an appointment online.
Joint Pain Q & A
What is joint pain?
Joint pain can affect one, some, or all of the 360 joints in your body. These joints form where two or more bones meet. The bones, held together with ligaments and supported by cartilage, tendons, and muscles, enable you to bend, twist, and rotate your body.
Some joints are highly mobile, like your shoulder. Others, like the sacroiliac joints in your pelvis, move very little. Some joints are large, like the hips and knees, while there are many tiny joints in your hands and feet.
All these joints have a lot of work to do every day, supporting your weight, stabilizing your body, and enabling you to do everything from running and jumping to writing and typing. Joint pain occurs when the joints suffer acute damage or overuse or develop chronic degenerative and inflammatory diseases.
What are the causes of joint pain?
Acute joint pain is often due to injuries like ligament sprains, tendon strains, or ruptures of these connective tissues. Cartilage tears, fractures, and dislocations also cause acute joint pain. Overuse injuries develop more slowly, when continual friction and irritation lead to inflammation. The result is problems like bursitis and tendinitis.
If you have chronic joint pain, the most likely cause is arthritis. This common disease isn’t a single condition but a collection of around 100 disorders affecting the joints. Osteoarthritis is the type you’re most likely to get. It develops when years of joint use cause the cartilage protecting your bones to get thin and worn.
Rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis are autoimmune disorders. They develop because your immune system has a flaw that makes it attack healthy cells in your joints. Gout, which usually affects the feet, is caused by crystals forming in the joint due to excess uric acid in your blood.
How is joint pain treated?
You might find that applying ice or heat to the affected joints relieves the pain. Over-the-counter anti-inflammatory medication can also ease joint pain temporarily. But if your joint pain is severe or persistent, you should seek medical help before it worsens.
Dr. Malik has extensive experience in helping patients with joint pain. Some of the treatments he offers at Texas Pain & Orthopedics include:
- Physical therapy
- Activity modification
- Using a brace or splint
- Medication
- Stem cell therapy
- Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections
- Steroid joint injections
- Viscosupplementation (injections of hyaluronic acid)
- Nerve blocks
- Radiofrequency ablation
- Peripheral nerve stimulation
If you’re overweight or obese, medically supervised weight loss could significantly improve your joint pain.
To benefit from Dr. Malik’s expertise in treating joint pain, call Texas Pain & Orthopedics today or book an appointment online.
