Physical Therapy as an Alternative to Surgery
by Allison Garmager, PT, DPT

Did you know that physical therapy can be a successful alternative to surgery? Often, when we are experiencing musculoskeletal pain, we are told that we need surgery. However, physical therapy can be improve mobility, strength, and promote your body’s natural healing processes to reduce pain and restore function, allowing you to lead a more active lifestyle.

Research has found physical therapy to be an effective alternative to surgery for many musculoskeletal conditions, such as rotator cuff tears and meniscus tears.  Additionally, physical therapy is a safer alternative to surgery, with decreased risk of experiencing adverse outcomes. In physical therapy, you will learn exercises and activities to reduce pain, reduce the risk of further tissue damage, and promote healing of injured tissues. Your physical therapist will be able to appropriately tailor the treatment and activities based on your specific needs and goals.

Physical therapy is almost always the most cost-effective way to restore health and cost of physical therapyfunction, especially when compared to surgery. This is true regardless of insurance coverage.  We all know how complicated insurance is to understand so at Kinetic Edge Physical Therapy, we will work with you to help you understand the physical therapy insurance benefits of your insurance plan. Though insurance plans differ, physical therapy is consistently lower cost to you and to our healthcare system compared to surgery.  PT is also more effective than imaging and injections that don’t address the underlying cause of the problem. In a study done by Health Services Research they concluded “patients who had an MRI first spent an average of $4,793 more on healthcare costs.

What would a typical physical therapy session entail? We will listen to you and discuss your health and pain or movement problems.  Then we will assess your function in mobility, strength, and neuromotor control to determine the cause of your pain or disfunction. Then, we will develop and plan and work one-on-one directly with you to address your specific needs with manual treatments and corrective exercises and activities to promote healing and improve your body’s ability to move better and feel better.

If you have pain or a movement problem you can learn more at www.KineticEdgePT.com or you can reach the specialists in movement at Kinetic Edge Physical Therapy by calling us at 866-588-0230.