Physical Therapy in Oklahoma City, OK
October is National Physical Therapy Month, which makes it a great time to think about your new favorite primary care provider... Your Physical Therapist.
Your doctor might have prescribed physical therapy, or maybe you saw an ad for back pain relief, but if you're not sure what physical therapy is, you have come to the right place.
What is a Physical Therapist?
When it comes to finding out who a physical therapist is, or what a physical therapist does, you will probably get a variety of answers. Just like there are different types of physicians, there are different specialties within physical therapy. If you talk to a pelvic floor physical therapist, you are going to get a different answer than you would from a vestibular rehabilitation physical therapist. If you talk to a physical therapist specializing in strength and conditioning, they will probably give you a different answer than one who is an expert in manual therapy. But they all have a common thread and that is the basis of their training.
Physical Therapists are trained experts in movement and work to optimize the human condition. Whether you speak with your pelvic health, vestibular, or orthopedic physical therapist they all want to optimize your movement to help you Love Your Life!
Who Benefits from Physical Therapy?
Anyone with a movement challenge could benefit from physical therapy. That is a really broad answer, but physical therapists can help you across the lifespan and with many different challenges. A
- Pediatric Physical Therapy: may help a child with torticollis, spina bifida, or cerebral palsy.
- Orthopedic Physical Therapy: can help you recover from an acute injury like a knee sprain or rotator cuff surgery.
- Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy: can help with women’s health conditions like back pain during pregnancy or prolapse, or things impacting both men and women like urinary incontinence, and constipation.
- Vestibular Physical Therapy: a balance rehabilitation expert will use vestibular rehabilitation and identification of sensory deficits to improve your balance and eliminate dizziness and vertigo.
- Geriatric Physical Therapy: can help seniors maintain the independence and dignity of a life well lived.
Many people have visited a physical therapist, but often that gives a very finite view of what a physical therapist can do. And unfortunately, not all physical therapy is the same. If you only know physical therapy because your grandmother slipped and had a fall, which left her with a hip fracture, your view of physical therapy is biased toward a skilled nursing setting. Long-term care to get her back to some level of functional independence, but you missed the pre-habilitation that a balance rehabilitation physical therapist could have provided. Instead of your grandmother falling, what if she had been prescribed physical therapy for fall prevention? She could have avoided a fall, avoided a hip fracture, and pain, and she could have maintained her independence while improving on her optimal level of functioning.
If you know physical therapy because your doctor sent you when you were having some back pain to the orthopedic specialist at the same hospital, your underlying pelvic floor dysfunction probably was never considered. That’s because an orthopedic physical therapist is not trained specifically in the muscles of the pelvic floor. They may have had you do some core strengthening, but a co-treatment with a pelvic floor physical therapist could have gotten at underlying muscle and joint dysfunction. Instead, you felt great when you left, but maybe the pain returned some weeks or months later and you felt like PT was not the right solution for you. That is our fault as physical therapists.
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How does Physical Therapy Work?
We need to do a better job of explaining the process of completing your plan of care. When you come in for your initial evaluation, we are assessing for a variety of different muscle and joint dysfunctions, some of which may not seem to be linked (remember your back pain… up to 95 of women with low back pain have concurrent underlying pelvic floor insufficiencies, get both treated and now you are back to optimal health). But this is just the beginning. There is a 5-step process for physical therapy:
Step 1: The assessment. During your assessment, your physical therapist is going to ask you similar questions to your physician, you might be asking why you have to fill out the same paperwork again. The answer is simple, your doctor is looking at you from a very different perspective than your physical therapist. There will be some overlap but to resolve your pain, we need to know what is happening straight from you.
Step 2: Pain Relief. You can get pain relief in a lot of different ways. Medication and surgery are two common considerations. Physical therapy is a different approach to pain relief. By freeing the restrictions of your muscles and joints, physical therapy can relieve the pressure or strain causing your pain.
Step 3: Strength and Flexibility. Most people’s goal is to get out of pain, but this simply is not a long-term solution. Medication can get you out of pain, but when the medication wears off, the pain returns. Physical therapy is longer lasting, but for long-term relief, you need to increase your strength and flexibility. This will allow you to prevent the recurrence of your pain or dysfunction.
Step 4: Optimal Functioning. While your initial goal might have been pain relief, we want you to recognize the real goal is optimal functioning. Pain is a symptom, it is just the manifestation of some underlying dysfunction (e.g., weak quads leading to the knee or hip pain, a weak pelvic floor leading to urinary incontinence, or poor throwing mechanics leading to should pain). When you have increased your strength and flexibility you need to go the next step to optimal functioning to get the most from physical therapy. When it comes to optimal functioning, your physical therapist is going to make sure that your joints are aligned properly, that your muscles can support your movement and activity level, and that you have proper mechanics to prevent the dysfunction from developing again.
Step 5: Maintenance. If you have achieved optimal functioning, it only makes sense that you want to maintain your physical gains. Your physical therapist should make sure that you have a home exercise program that you can complete on your own to maintain those gains and prevent future dysfunction. We want you to know how to resolve the issue yourself and prevent it from recurring. Any quality physical therapist will make sure you can do your exercises independently, but if you are having trouble or you just want the support of a great relationship your physical therapist may even be able to offer you a health maintenance plan, which may include additional physical therapy visits scheduled overtime or supervised time in your physical therapy gym.
You just need to get started with an evaluation, today!
Why Does Physical Therapy Hurt?
It shouldn't. Physical therapy has a stated goal of pain relief, so if physical therapy is painful, you need to let your physical therapist know. Pain is an indication that you may be engaged in a movement that is going to increase damage to your body. That does not necessarily mean that physical therapy is always enjoyable, as with anything worthwhile, physical therapy may cause some discomfort. For example, you may feel some popping in your joints without pain, or you may feel a burning sensation as you strengthen your muscles, these are not likely to be of concern, but if you have questions about what you are feeling and whether it is beneficial or not, ask your PT. They should be there coaching you each step along the way.
Isn’t it time you called your Oklahoma City Physical Therapists to see what FYZICAL can do for you? CALL FYZICAL
Do I need to see my Doctor to Start Physical Therapy?
Physical therapists are quickly being recognized as primary care providers. This coincides with the increased education requirement for physical therapists (new PTs have to earn their doctorate to become licensed to practice). As part of this increased education, Physical Therapists in all 50 US states enjoy some form of direct access, and Oklahoma is no different.
With Direct Access to physical therapy, you can see your physical therapist without going to your physician first. But direct access does not mean we are on an island. To get the most out of your healthcare experience, it is our goal to be collaborative members of your healthcare team. We want to be partners with you and your doctor in helping you live your best life.
How much does Physical Therapy Cost?
There is no simple answer to how much physical therapy costs. Just some of the factors involved include:
- Will your therapy be inpatient, skilled nursing, or outpatient?
- Do you have insurance? What is your insurance benefit? Is your physical therapist in-network or out-of-network?
- Provider type. Are you seeing a hospital-based provider (they often get paid more)? Are you seeing an independent provider (like locally owned FYZICAL Therapy & Balance Centers of Oklahoma City)?
With that being said, the cost of your co-pay or deductible can shock many patients. However, when you consider what surgery costs, what medication costs, or what just dealing with it might cost, physical therapy routinely comes out as the cheapest, most effective treatment for a variety of conditions. Physical therapy is conservative care; if you end up needing more invasive care like surgery, likely, you have already paid toward your deductible and if physical therapy did not lead to the outcome you were looking for alone, it will likely help you achieve the best post-surgical outcome possible.
What is Physical Therapy?
Physical therapy is the conservative, effective treatment for the relief of pain and improvement in your movement leading to an increase in your quality of life. If you are having difficulty with anything related to movement or essential functions, physical therapy should be your first stop on the road to recovery. It’s “Your Health, Your Choice,” if you want an effective outcome that is long-lasting and doesn’t require surgery or medication, physical therapy is the clear winner.
-FYZICAL Therapy & Balance Centers of Oklahoma City
FYZICAL Therapy & Balance Centers of Oklahoma City provides orthopedic physical therapy in Lakeside, The Village, Nichols Hills, and surrounding NW Oklahoma City. Our physical therapists are specially trained to treat all types of pain, movement disorders, and musculoskeletal dysfunction including post-surgical recovery from ACL Tear. Our practitioners take a patient-centered individualized approach that focuses on your health needs. If you are unsure about your pain, or you want to see the FYZICAL Difference for yourself, schedule a free consultation today.