Joint Pain

Delmarva Spine & Pain

Board Certified Interventional Pain Management located in Ocean View, DE & Berlin, MD

Chronic joint pain is often a result of arthritis, but many other acute and overuse injuries can cause pain in your knees, shoulder, hips, and other joints. Whatever the cause of your joint pain, Wadid Zaky, MD, of Delmarva Spine & Pain in Berlin, Maryland, and Ocean View, Delaware offers effective treatments that promote healing and minimize discomfort. Joints are vital to the activities of daily living, and with Dr. Zaky's help, you can manage the pain and improve your mobility. Find out more about resolving your joint pain by calling Delmarva Spine & Pain today or booking an appointment online.

Joint Pain Q&A

What could be causing my joint pain?

Your joints work hard every day, enabling you to move your body and do all the activities that fill your life. Joints come under almost continual stress, some of it extreme, so it's not surprising that injuries and long-term damage are such common causes of joint pain.

The primary degenerative condition of the joints is osteoarthritis, which develops after decades of wear-and-tear. The smooth cartilage coating the bones inside your joints wears away over time, which allows raw bones to rub together.

Joint pain can also be due to one of the many other forms of arthritis, such as rheumatoid arthritis, septic arthritis, gout, and psoriatic arthritis. Inflammation in the bursae — sacs of fluid found in some joints — can cause bursitis, another frequent cause of joint pain.

These conditions cause chronic joint pain, whereas acute joint pain is typically due to injuries.

What injuries can cause joint pain?

Joint injuries affect the cartilage, tendons, muscles, ligaments, and nerves that make up your joints. Injuries that commonly cause joint pain include:

Sprained ligaments
Strained tendons
Pulled muscles
Dislocations
Fractures
Articular cartilage damage

Specific injuries responsible for joint pain include ankle sprains, rotator cuff tears in the shoulders, anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and medial collateral ligament (MCL) sprains in the knees, labral tears in the hips and shoulders, and meniscal tears in the knees.

How is joint pain treated?

If your joint pain is due to an injury, then resting the joint helps injured tissues to heal. Following a physical therapy program rebuilds strength in the muscles around the joint and is often effective in resolving the problem.

When you first incur a joint injury, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) can ease the pain and reduce inflammation.

Heat and ice, compression bandages, or immobilization with a splint or cast might be necessary for some injuries to avoid stressing the affected joint. Manual therapy might also help.

Treatments Dr. Zaky might recommend for treating chronic or severe joint pain include:

Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections
IV therapy
Steroid injections
Viscosupplementation (hyaluronic acid injections)
Nerve blocks
Radiofrequency ablation

You might need to look at lifestyle issues as well. For example, smoking slows down tissue healing and being overweight puts excessive stress on your joints.

For effective solutions to all kinds of joint pain, call Delmarva Spine & Pain today or book an appointment online.

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