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What we treat

There are a lot of conditions known to be treated in a physical therapy setting by a physical therapist. Many will think of physical therapy after an injury or surgery, but that is only a piece of our scope of practice.  I find people are surprised by some of the conditions that we can treat. On this page, I hope to expand on areas of physical therapy well known and unexpected. Below, there should be a comment section. If you know of an area of physical therapy I haven’t mentioned, or have questions about whether physical therapy can assist in treating a specific diagnosis

Musculoskeletal Injuries

In this section, you will find areas of the body that are relatively well known to be treated in physical therapy. The term musculoskeletal refers to joints (where two bones meet) and the muscles at and around that joint that create or resist movement. These injuries are known to be: 

          - Bone - Fracture

          - Muscle - Strain or Tear

          - Ligament - Sprain or Tear

                    - Ligament = structure that connects one bone to another bone.  

          - Tendon - Strain or Tear

                    - Tendon = structure that connects a muscle to a bone. 

Physical therapists often treat these injures directly. But also, injury to these tissues may be the result of poor movement patterning. Examples of this include: 

          - Pain and tightness in the back of the neck in a person who works on the computer all day. 

          - Pain in the shoulder when lifting the arm because their shoulder blade isn't stable. 

          - Pain in the hip or back because of a developed limp. 

It's the job of the physical therapist to be able to know what caused your pain and what interventions are necessary to improve your pain.

 

In general, when I see a new patient, I want to first know:

          - Where do you hurt?

          - Did something happen that started the pain? Or did it develop for no known reason?

          -  What makes your pain better? What makes it worse? 

Answers to these questions will assist in directing what interventions you will need to get better. 

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