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What’s Involved In Sports Medicine?

It’s a fact that injuries happen; especially if you’re involved in sporting activities. Whether you’re a professional athlete or you just play sports with friends, an injury can really affect your game. If you’re dealing with a sports injury, a sports medicine specialist is your best option for a speedy recovery.

The team at Alpha Orthopedics and Sports Medicine are experts in treating injuries related to sporting events. Leading our practice is a very skilled group of orthopedic surgeons. These surgeons not only specialize in sports injuries, but also the best treatment option to get you back in the game.

What exactly is sports medicine?

Sports medicine is a branch of medicine that focuses on injuries sustained in either sporting events or physical activities. Specialists, like our doctors at Alpha Orthopedics and Sports Medicine, focus on not only the treatment of sports-related injuries, but prevention as well.

But our specialists don’t just treat professional athletes; in fact, you don’t even have to play a sport to get treated by a sports medicine specialist. This type of medicine treats just about any injury that happens when you’re doing some type of physical activity. This may include running, weight lifting, or even physically demanding jobs.

Sports medicine is often considered a multidisciplinary type of medicine. This means that other specialties are involved in your care as well. These specialties may include athletic trainers, physical therapists, and nutritionists

All of these team members work together to help you prevent sports injuries, or get you back in the game after you’ve hurt yourself. 

Injuries that sports medicine doctors treat

Sports medicine aims at treating injuries that are specific to physical activity. While there are a lot of different injuries out there, not all of them are classified under this medical specialty. You can make an appointment with one of our sports medicine specialists if you’ve suffered one of the following injuries:

It doesn’t matter if you injured your knee sliding into home base, or your ankle is swollen after running a half-marathon; these injuries are all covered under the umbrella of sports medicine. 

This specialty is very important, because an injury usually happens very unexpectedly. When this happens, you need to get treatment as soon as possible, so you can heal quickly and get back to the activities and life you enjoy.

Understanding a sports medicine checkup

The direction of your appointment depends on if you’re recently injured, or looking for help with preventing an injury. Either way, your appointment starts with our doctors going over a detailed history, including which activities you’re involved in.

If you’re injured, our doctors also perform a physical exam. This includes a detailed look at your injury. They may ask you to move a certain way to see what either makes your pain better or worse. They’ll also visually assess the area to look for bruising or swelling.

If our team determines that you’ve sustained a fracture or soft tissue injury, they send you for imaging studies like an X-ray or MRI. In some cases, you may also need a CAT scan. Once the imaging comes back, our doctors review the findings and decide on the best course of treatment for your injury.

Treatment for a sports-related injury doesn’t always involve surgery; in fact the opposite is often true. Our team does their best to get you the treatment you need quickly, so you can get back to your life. Some of the types of treatments we offer include:

We also offer regenerative medicine injections, like platelet-rich plasma therapy or stem cell therapy. This may help speed up your recovery when paired with other treatment modalities as well.

If you’ve sustained a sports injury and need professional treatment, call our team at Alpha Orthopedics and Sports Medicine at one of our three convenient locations to schedule a consultation, or find us online to set up an appointment today.

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