Your doctor may recommend physical therapy as a course of treatment when dealing with an orthopaedic condition.
Conditions where physical therapy may be prescribed:
-
Reduce or eliminate pain
- Aid the healing of an acute sports injury
- Delay or even avoid surgery completely
- Prepare for a surgical procedure and recovery
- As part of recovery from orthopaedic surgery
- Restore mobility, balance, or normal gait
- Prevent re-injury
- For education on preventing future injury
Each Riverside physical therapist is a licensed professional trained to work with patients who have sustained a wide variety of injuries, disabilities or impairments. You'll work with your physical therapist at one of our Physical Therapy centers on an outpatient basis.
Insurance
Most insurance companies will cover your Riverside physical therapy sessions when you have a referral or prescription from your orthopaedic surgeon. The clinic staff will be happy to research your coverage. Call us before your initial visit and we will confirm your benefits. In addition, we will handle billing your insurance company once treatment has begun.
Road to Recovery
Physical therapy includes a variety of treatments designed to relieve your pain and restore your range of motion and function to what it was before. Your therapist will discuss your condition, pain and goals with you. Then he or she will evaluate your current:
-
Strength
-
Balance
- Range of motion
- Coordination
- Endurance and fitness level
- Posture and gait (if necessary)
Depending on the evaluation, your goals and the instructions from your referring doctor, you and your physical therapist, as a team, will develop your own "Road to Recovery" or treatment plan.
Goals
The goals you set are a very important part of your treatment. With your physical therapist, you should set a few very attainable short-term goals and a long-term goal of what you hope to achieve at the end of your treatment. Working in concert with other medical professionals, your therapist will evaluate your progress toward your goals on a regular basis.
Treatments
Depending on your injury, you and your therapist may work on one or more of the following treatments:
-
Heat therapy
- Cold therapy
- Ultrasound
- Nerve stimulation
- Massage therapy
- Splint creation for prevention or corrections of injury
- Traction
- Bandages to help control swelling
- Sensory re-education after nerve injury
- Exercises to stretch and strengthen muscles
- Exercises to improve posture
- Training in the performance of daily life skills using adapted methods and equipment
A part of your physical therapy is educational. You'll learn how to avoid further injuries. Or, you may learn how to wrap your painful joint to protect it from further injury. In the case of arthritis, you'll be taught strategies for living with reduced mobility and exercises to keep your supporting muscles strong.
Therapy timeline
How long your physical therapy will last depends upon so many factors that it is difficult to give a definitive answer. Experience shows that patients who are serious about their daily exercises and instructions for the period between appointments will make more progress than those who wait until their appointment to get to work.
