Severe Knee Pain: What Can You Do About It?
If the medicated creams and lotions you use don't ease your severe knee pain, you may wonder if you'll ever find relief for your problem. Severe knee pain can keep you from living a healthy, happy, and productive life, especially if you don't know why you have it in the first place. The following information can help you understand why your knees hurt and what you can do to ease or treat it.
Why Do You Have Severe Knee Pain?
Your knees are joints that connect your thigh bones to your shins. Without knee joints, you couldn't flex, stretch, or bend the lower half of your body. Although your knees are amazing tissues, they can take a beating from everyday stress, tension, and pressure. These problems can wear down the soft and hard tissues that make up your knee joints.
Knee pain can also develop from the aging process. Like many other tissues in your body, joints become thin and fragile during the aging process. One of the changes you might experience from aging is arthritis. Arthritis occurs when the ends of bones (joints) deteriorate or inflame from excessive wear and tear. Your immune system can also attack your joints and damage them.
The pain in your knees can develop from any of the issues above. In order to pinpoint or diagnose the real cause of your knee pain, you'll need to see an orthopedic specialist.
How Do You Ease Your Severe Knee Pain?
An orthopedic specialist is a doctor who treats conditions of the bones and joints. The doctor may take X-rays of your knees to see why they hurt or ache. If X-rays aren't sufficient enough to diagnose your condition, a doctor will use a special diagnostic procedure called arthroscopy to inspect your knees. Arthroscopy may reveal a number of things in your knee joints, including inflammation, infection, fractures, or deterioration.
Arthroscopy may also allow an orthopedic doctor to perform surgery on your knees. A doctor may use special tools to remove damaged tissue from your knee joints during the procedure. Some doctors administer medications and other treatments during arthroscopic procedures.
After your procedure, you may need to rest for a short while before you return to work or daily activities. Some adults require physical therapy to regain full movement in their knees. If you have concerns about your recovery, consult directly with a bone and joint specialist.
For more details and information about your knees and how to treat them with arthroscopy, contact a medical office like Ultimate Sports.