Physical Therapy

What is physical therapy?

Physical therapy naturally helps your body reduce pain, improve function, and recover from injury. It’s a natural part of a medical care plan because it encourages natural healing and improves your strength and function.

The providers at Vantage Medical Associates PC offer physical therapy as part of a comprehensive treatment plan for many situations, including:

• Sports injuries
• Cancer rehabilitation
• Whiplash
• Shoulder or elbow pain
• Back and neck pain
• Leg and hip pain
• Sciatica
• Workers’ compensation issues
• Spinal cord and brain injuries
• Stroke recovery
• Fibromyalgia and other chronic pain conditions
• Cardiac rehabilitation
  
  

Physical therapy is included as part of physiatry (physical medicine and rehabilitation), a branch of medicine directed at enhancing your quality of life and restoring function to those with a disability or physical impairment caused by injury or illness.

What does physical therapy include?

Your physical therapy plan is customized to treat your condition and meet your recovery needs. It usually involves a comprehensive approach that incorporates multiple disciplines. It can include:

Neuromuscular medicine and neurorehabilitation

This part of neurology and physiatry treats abnormalities in motor neurons, nerve roots, and peripheral nerves, like multiple sclerosis (MS) and muscular dystrophy.

Neurorehabilitation improves your function, reduces symptoms, and improves your well-being. Neurorehabilitation can include electrodiagnostic medicine tests to find out what’s causing nerve pain or damage. These tests include electromyography and nerve conduction studies.

Nerve conduction studies evaluate how fast it takes an electrical impulse to move through a nerve. The results of these studies can indicate nerve damage. Electromyography (EMG) involves inserting a needle electrode inserted directly into a muscle to record the electrical activity in that muscle.

Sports medicine

Sports medicine treats muscle balance and movement problems to prevent injuries and restore function after an injury.

Pain medicine

Pain medicine addresses your pain and evaluates, treats, and rehabilitates it. It can be used for people with chronic pain conditions to teach them how to manage their pain and function as well as possible.

Occupational and environmental medicine

These specialists focus on diagnosing and treating work-related illnesses and injuries.

What types of treatment does physical therapy include?

Depending on your condition and recovery needs, you could undergo one or more of the following physical therapy therapies:

• Strength-building exercises
• Range-of-motion exercises
• Electrical muscle stimulation
• Therapeutic musculoskeletal ultrasound
• Heat treatments
• Ice treatments
• Massage
• Pain medications
  
  

Physical therapy works to restore your level of activity. If you’re a runner, your therapist wants to help you get back to running. If you’re more interested in simply being able to do daily chores and walk around your neighborhood, your physical therapist can help with that too.

Learn more about the comprehensive physical therapy program offered at Vantage Medical Associates PC by calling the office today or using the online tool to schedule your appointment.