Is joint pain getting in the way of your life? Our team at Orchidia Medical Group in Naples, FL, offers PRP injections to help you manage and recover from painful conditions that can contribute to joint pain. Today we’re going over some common questions about PRP and how it could help you improve your comfort levels.
PRP for Joint Pain: How Does It Work?
Reduce Inflammation and Encourage Healing
Joint pain can often be caused by the degeneration of the collagen fibers that form our tendons. When there’s irritation around a joint, inflammation can magnify the pain even further. PRP is chock-full of nutrients and platelets that encourage your body’s natural collagen production and healing abilities on a cellular level.
What Is PRP?
PRP is short for platelet-rich plasma; a concentrated form of the healing properties found in our own blood. It’s naturally occurring and plays a significant role in healing and restoration after an injury. The growth factors found in PRP promote recovery, meaning they can help your body form healthy tissue. It also contains anti-inflammatory properties to help improve a patient’s comfort levels as the healing is underway.
What To Expect
The Consultation
The first step to treatment is a consultation. We’ll go over your health history and condition, and discuss your needs and goals. Once we’ve determined that PRP is a good fit for you, we’ll move forward with establishing a personalized treatment plan. We’ll talk about whether a single injection or a series of treatments would have the best chance of giving you the results you’re looking for.
The Treatment
When it’s time for your treatment, we’ll start things off by collecting a small sample of your blood. We only ever use a patient’s own blood for their treatment. This blood will be processed in our specialized centrifuge machine, which uses rapid spinning to separate the sample into layers. This process creates the “liquid gold” layer of PRP, which can now be drawn up and used wherever it’s needed.
Once we have the PRP we will inject it into or around the injured area. Once the PRP is injected, it’ll jump into action and begin activating your body’s healing response. Over time, you should notice your joint’s comfort, mobility, and functionality improving. While you’re with us, we will give you guidelines on how to best take care of your treated joint to encourage great results.
How Do I Know When It’s Time To Seek Out Help?
If your symptoms are interfering with your ability to rest or enjoy your daily life, it may be time to seek out treatment. You can also seek out treatment simply to speed up the healing process. In short, if you have any concerns about your symptoms, it’s worth looking into. A consultation is the best way for us to know whether PRP is a good treatment option for you.
Benefits of PRP Injections
Minimally-Invasive
For some tendon injuries, the first course of action used to be surgery. Muscles and tendons can take a long time to recover on their own, but with PRP injections you have a better chance of managing joint pain effectively in a way that doesn’t require surgery.
Some patients who find that they do need surgery may still seek out PRP afterward to encourage a faster recovery time.
Natural
The PRP material comes from your own body. That’s pretty natural, and this fact also helps make PRP injections a very safe treatment option. Rather than introducing something foreign to your body, the PRP is recognizable and tends to be readily accepted and easily utilized by your body during the healing process.
Reclaim Comfort and Functionality
Joint pain can range from an inconvenience to debilitating. No matter where you fall in that range, pain can prevent you from doing what you need to do, or enjoying your favorite hobbies. Our goal is to help you reclaim your joint’s functionality so you can live your life in a more fulfilling, comfortable way.
Quick Process
Life is busy, and it can be hard to stuff lengthy treatments into an already packed schedule. Receiving a PRP injection is a quick and easy process, making it easier to schedule and less of a hassle.
With no required recovery time, you can also get right back to your daily life afterward. Patients who don’t want to lose a whole day or more over their treatments are often thrilled at the idea of being able to come in for a quick appointment and carry on with their day afterward.
A Trusted Treatment
PRP entered the scene in the 1970s when it was discovered that this material had a more concentrated level of platelets than the platelet levels in circulating blood. Soon after, they found that PRP had unique anti-inflammatory properties and could stimulate the growth of healthy cell material.
This was exciting news for professional athletes in particular, who began to receive PRP treatment to speed up their recovery after an injury. This brought PRP into the public eye and led to an increase in the treatment’s popularity. Nowadays it’s still used for joint and injury repair, as well as during cardiac and pediatric surgery. Some offices even offer PRP facials as a cosmetic treatment.
Comprehensive Restoration
In addition to being used for joint pain, PRP injections can be used to manage a wide range of tendon concerns. It has also been used to help patients with osteoarthritis, as it can help restore damaged cartilage and encourage joint lubrication.
It Can Improve Tendon Irritations
Tendon irritations, or tendonitis, happens when a tendon gets inflamed. Tendons are cords made of a thick, fibrous material. They attach our muscles and bones together, and when they’re irritated it can cause painful symptoms right outside of the joint. Any tendons can be afflicted, but heavily-used tendons are the most likely to receive an injury. Knees, heels, shoulders, elbows, and wrists are all prone to tendon issues.
When rest and physical therapy isn’t enough to treat tendonitis, or if the healing process is taking too long for your liking, it might be time to consider PRP injections. Some common names given to tendon injuries may include golfer’s elbow, tennis elbow, pitcher’s shoulder, swimmer’s shoulder, and jumper’s knee.
It Can Be Used for Bursitis
A bursa is the closed sac of fluid that cushions certain tissues in the body. They serve as a gliding surface and help reduce friction. Bursitis can affect the major bursae in your knees, hips, elbows, or shoulders, but it can also affect any bursae throughout the body. There are several forms of bursitis that are more common than others.
Retromalleolar Tendon Bursitis
Also known as Albert’s disease, a contributing illness or injury can cause it. Sometimes Albert’s disease is caused by wearing shoes that strain the lower section of the Achilles tendon. Since there is a bursa location where the heel attaches to the tendon, bursitis can result.
Posterior Achilles Tendon Bursitis
Do you find that as you’re walking, your soft heel tissue is pressed against the stiff back support of your shoes? If so, you could be at a higher risk for developing this condition, which is also known as the Haglund deformity.
Hip Bursitis
Women, or patients who are middle-aged and up, are more likely to suffer from this form of bursitis. Age can be a contributor, but certain surgeries, spinal abnormalities, arthritis, overuse, or injuries can cause this condition as well.
Elbow Bursitis
Some patients with elbow bursitis find themselves developing the condition after consistently putting pressure on their elbows. One example would be leaning on a hard surface, like a desk, for an extended period.
Knee Bursitis
Pes Anserine bursitis or goosefoot bursitis are other common names for this painful condition. There is a bursa called the Pes Anserine bursa. It’s found on the inside of the knee, nestled between the three tendons of your hamstrings, and the shin bone.
If you’ve ever wondered why stretching before exercise is important, this condition can be a consequence of skipping your stretches and going right into vigorous exercise. It can also be caused by tight hamstrings, arthritis, an out-turning of the lower leg or knee, or obesity.
Kneecap Bursitis
Plumbers and carpet-layers could be at a higher risk for developing bursitis of the knees. This is due to how often they tend to kneel on hard surfaces for extended periods of time.
While prevention and joint protection are always a good idea, sometimes injuries happen. When they do, our team is happy to help you on the road to recovery. PRP is one of the versatile tools we offer that can help treat these challenging conditions.
Your Joints Will Thank You
If you still have questions about this treatment process, our compassionate team would be happy to help you. We want our patients to feel confident about their treatment options and will strive to match you with the best fit for your needs. Reach out to us at Orchidia Medical Group in Naples, FL, to set up your consultation today!
