There are other factors to consider however. We discuss some of these below.

1. Range of motion will not always return fully.

Issues including scar tissue can cause ongoing pain and stiffness in skin, muscles and joints. Physiotherapy can help prevent excessive scarring from forming through advice regarding movement, massage and other hands-on treatment. Stiff joints will generally respond, at least to some extent, to manual therapy and exercise prescription.

2. Your ability to sense the position of your body, known as proprioception, is often impaired after an injury and can be retrained.

Impaired proprioception is a major factor in re-injury. If you’ve ever heard someone say “my knee/ankle/shoulder still doesn’t feel 100%” then this could be why. The good news is that with a specific exercise program, proprioception can be improved. An ankle sprain is an example of an injury that will typically heal in a short amount of time with rest, but a significant number of people
will experience ongoing issues with instability. Proprioception retraining is an important part of addressing this instability.

3. Once healing has finished, your body may not be exactly the same as before.

Following an injury, ligaments may be lax, joints may be stiffer and muscles are almost always weaker. While the pain may be gone, there might still be factors that need to be addressed to prevent more complicated issues in the future. For example, a significant knee injury or surgery will typically leave patients with a significant limp which may benefit from a physio’s attention.

4. Strength does not always return automatically.

After an injury, passive structures such as ligaments and cartilage may recover to the point that you are no longer in pain. However, muscle strength will not always return completely over time.
A common example are the quadriceps muscles which are crucial for knee stability, or the rotator cuff muscles at the shoulder. Atrophy after the use of crutches or a sling, or after a surgical
procedure, often requires strengthening exercises to be properly addressed.

5. Injuries don’t always heal completely.

On rare occasions, injuries may not be able to heal completely on their own. The most serious example of this is a fracture that cannot heal if the bone is not kept still enough. Other factors that
may prevent an injury from healing include poor circulation, diabetes, insufficient care of the injury and poor nutrition. A physio is qualified to identify these cases and refer onward as appropriate. Your physiotherapist can assess your injury and develop a treatment plan that will both restore you to the best possible function and prevent further injuries.

*None of the information in this article is a replacement for proper medical advice. Always see a medical professional for advice on your individual injury. Have an injury that needs some attention? Book now to see one of our great physiotherapists.

The post Five Reasons To See A Physiotherapist After An Injury appeared first on physioFIX.

When injury strikes, the first thing that most of us want to know is ‘how long will this take to heal?’ Unfortunately, the answer to this can be complicated and requires at least a little understanding of how the different tissues of the body heal. Each of the tissues of the body, including muscles, tendons, ligaments and bone, heal at different speeds and each person will have some variation on those times as a result of their individual health history and circumstances.

Understanding the type of tissue injured and their different healing times is an important part of how your physiotherapist approaches treatment and setting goals for rehabilitation. On an individual level, a patient’s age, the location and severity of the injury and the way the injury was managed in the first 48 hours all affect the healing times of an injury. Unfortunately, as we age, injuries do tend to heal more slowly than when we are young.  Any medical condition that reduces blood flow to an area, such as peripheral vascular disease, can also reduce the body’s ability to heal at its usual rate.

There are some guidelines that can be followed when predicting how long an injury will take to heal based on the tissue type affected. Muscles are full of small capillaries, giving them a rich blood supply, and as such, they have a comparatively fast healing time with 2-4 weeks for minor tears. This time will be extended for larger tears and more complicated presentations.

Ligaments and tendons have less access to blood supply and  tears to these tissues generally take longer to heal. Larger or complete tears of all soft tissues, may not be able to heal themselves and in rare cases, surgery may be required for complete healing to occur. Similarly, cartilage, the flexible connective tissue that lines the surface of joints is avascular, which means it has little or no blood supply. To heal, nutrients are supplied to the cartilage from the joint fluid that surrounds and lubricates the joint.

While the different tissues of the body all have different healing times, they do follow a similar process of healing with three main stages, the acute inflammatory phase, the proliferative stage and finally the remodeling stage.

The inflammatory stage occurs immediately after an injury and is the body’s primary defense against injury. This stage is identifiable by heat, redness, swelling and pain around the injured area. During this phase the body sends white blood cells to remove damaged tissue and reduce any further damage. This stage usually lasts for 3-5 days.

The proliferation stage is the phase where the body starts to produce new cells. Swelling and pain subsides and scar tissue is formed that eventually becomes new tissue. This stage usually occurs around days 7-14 following an injury.

The final stage, known as the remodeling stage is when the body completes healing with the reorganization of scar tissue and the laying down of mature tissue. This stage usually occurs roughly two weeks after the initial injury is sustained.

At each stage of the healing process a different treatment approach is required and our friendly physiotherapists can help to guide you through your recovery. Don’t be afraid to ask us to explain how your injury can be managed best and what to expect in your recovery process. Got an injury you need taken care of? Click here to make a booking with one of our physio’s.

The post When Will My Injury Heal? appeared first on physioFIX.