Why You Shouldn't Ignore Knee Pain

Whether you were playing tennis on the weekend and felt a sharp pain in your knee, or you’ve been living with ongoing aches and pains for quite sometime now, you’re not alone. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that at least 15 million people — one in four — experiences severe joint pain. And when it happens in your knee, your whole world comes to a screeching halt. 

At Performance Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine, David Dickerson MD and Shawn Denning DNP, APN in Toms River, New Jersey, diagnose and treat knee pain every day. Although the symptoms and severity vary, one thing is always true: the sooner you get treatment, the better. 

Unfortunately, many people ignore their knee pain, thinking it will go away on its own or it’s not bad enough to warrant a visit to the doctor. Here’s why that’s a bad idea.

The dangers of ignoring your knee pain

While it’s true that some minor aches and pains will subside on their own without medical intervention, many won’t. In fact, they’ll get worse.

Taking the “wait and see” approach is fine for the first few days, but you’re gambling on an instinct and may be jeopardizing your knee health past that point. 

The primary reason to seek care for your knee pain is to receive an accurate diagnosis so you can start the right treatment, even if that means all you need is rest and ice. 

If it turns out you have a serious injury or a compromised joint that’s susceptible to injury, you may be doing more damage with every step you take. 

Ignoring an injury is also likely to increase your pain level. Without appropriate treatment, inflammation continues and nerves become chronically irritated, sending constant pain signals to your brain.

Another byproduct of ignoring knee pain is the increased risk for falls and further injuries. Painful knee joints cause instability in your gait and affect your coordination. One wrong move can have you toppling over and further damaging your knee or injuring other body parts.

Signs you should seek help for your knee pain

Any time you feel joint pain, we recommend a visit to our office. Even if it’s minor, we can advise you about how to make sure it doesn’t progress. Here are are some signs that your knees need to be seen:

• Chronic pain that lasts for months
• Decreased mobility
• Can’t put weight on it
• Severe pain
• Pain that wakes you up at night
• Difficulty changing positions
• Visible signs of injury: swelling, redness, warmth, deformity
• Audible knee noise: popping, cracking, or grinding
• Pain that doesn’t respond to OTC pain relievers (or requires large doses)

If you just helped a friend move or played a game of racquetball, your aching knees may just need a rest. But if you have any of the symptoms above, it’s probably something more serious.

Types of knee injuries that don’t go away on their own

Knee conditions are often hard to self-diagnose. That's why it’s important to seek an orthopedic specialist like Dr. Dickerson. He has years of experience treating the knees of world-class athletes and getting them back in the game. Here are the types of knee injuries he sees most often:

Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury

Your ACL is one of the large ligaments in your knee. An ACL sprain or tear is common in sports because it often happens when your knee comes to a sudden stop. Many people hear a “pop” at the moment of injury. 

Torn meniscus

The cartilage in your knee, the meniscus, stabilizes and cushions the joint. But if you twist your knee with great force, you can easily tear your meniscus. Like ACL injuries, meniscus tears are common in sports, but they can happen to anyone.

Dislocated knee

When your shin bone and thigh bone bypass one another in an accident or a fall, it dislocates your knee joint, and damages blood vessels, nerves, and ligaments as well.

Tendinitis or bursitis

Repetitive motions like catching in a baseball game or tiling a floor can cause tendinitis (inflammation of the tendons) or bursitis (inflammation of the fluid-filled bursa sac in your knee).

Arthritis

There many types of arthritis, but the one that most frequently plagues the knee is osteoarthritis, the wear-and-tear type that degrades your cartilage and leaves you with bones rubbing on bones and inevitable inflammation. 

Treating knee pain

Our team treats your knee pain according to your unique condition, symptoms, current and past health, and activity goals. If at-home treatments haven’t been successful, he may recommend physical therapy, corticosteroid injections, regenerative medicine (stem cell therapy), or even surgery, if necessary.

If you have knee pain, don’t risk making it worse. Call us o  request an appointment online today.