You know that physical therapists (PTs) treat sports injuries, or that injury you wished was a sports injury that you really just got from reaching for the remote. Don’t worry, we’ve all been there.
You may know PTs help people who’ve had major events like a stroke, spinal cord injury, back surgery, or a total knee replacement.
PTs are pain and movement specialists who help build strength, improve balance, lessen pain, and gain flexibility with the ultimate goal of improving your ability to do the things you want or need to do.
Here are six problems a PT can help with:
- Jaw or Facial Pain: Your dentist might call it TMD for temporomandibular disorder. TMD includes pain in the jaw joints located in front of each earlobe and can cause headaches, jaw clicking, and even limited jaw movement for eating and talking. A physical therapist can address the muscle tension, reduce the pain, and discuss the habits that are affecting it.
- Poor posture: Do you need multiple pillows to support your head when lying flat on your back? Do you have osteoporosis and are seeing the roundness in your upper back like your mother had. Poor posture sounds like a vanity issue, but it can lead to poor muscle performance for sports, pain, breathing difficulties, and balance impairments. The longer it is left unaddressed, the more difficult it is to reverse. See a PT to get you standing tall and straight.
- Headaches: Headaches can be as mild as a minor distraction or keep you in bed for days. Although headaches have many causes, tension headaches are the most common. A physical therapist can evaluate yours and determine if neck muscle and joint treatment would be helpful.
- Dizziness: If you’ve been reading this blog, you know FYZICAL Forest Grove is building a balance center to treat dizziness and balance problems. You might hear the term, vestibular rehabilitation, which refers to treatment addressing the area of the inner ear that manages our balance. Like headaches, there could be a number of causes of dizziness, some of which can be treated by a PT.
- Incontinence and pelvic pain: Do you know where every bathroom is in town? Have you experienced bladder leakage when you coughed or sneezed? Is pelvic pain limiting your daily activities or sex life? FYZICAL Forest Grove can direct you to PTs who specialize in this.
- Preparation for surgeries: Are you worried about using crutches after your foot surgery? Do you want to recover as quickly as you can after your knee replacement? Talk to your surgeon to see if it appropriate to have a session or two with a PT prior to your orthopedic or other surgery.
Did any of these surprise you? We’d love to talk to you about how we can help you get back to being active and healthy. Share this with a friend by clicking on one of the buttons at the top of the blog.
Reach out to FZYCAL Forest Grove and schedule an appointment today.
Beth Jennings, PT