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What is Sports Medicine?
Playing sports is great for your physical and mental health. It can teach children about teamwork, and it’s a great way for adults to socialize while getting physical activity. However, if you play sports, you’re definitely at risk for a sports-related injury.
According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), youth and adults experience 8.6 million sports-related injuries every year.
Sports medicine specialists can help you heal or repair your injury, and also teach you how to prevent re-injury. They can also advise you on how to avoid getting injured in the first place.
Sports medicine specialists don’t just treat professional athletes, although there is a sports medicine specialist who works with most professional sports teams. These experts also treat weekend warriors, high school and college athletes, and anyone who wants to stay in shape.
At Tuscaloosa Orthopedic & Joint Institute, board-certified and fellowship-trained orthopedic surgeon Brian King, MD, PhD, helps all types of athletes stay in the game.
Common sports-related injuries
What is a sports injury? It may involve a traumatic event, caused by a fall or impact. Or, it can develop from overuse. Common injuries include:
- Fractures
- Rotator cuff injuries
- ACL and meniscal tears
- Tendinitis
- Golfer’s or tennis elbow
- Concussions
How sports medicine specialists can help
Sports medicine is a subspecialty. Sports medicine doctors often specialize in family medicine, internal medicine, or orthopedics, and then spend additional years focusing on sports injury treatments and preventions.
One of the best ways a sports medicine expert can help any athlete is to advise them on proper injury prevention strategies. Unfortunately, not all injuries can be prevented.
If you or your child is injured, you should make an appointment with a sports medicine specialist a few days after the injury if there is pain, swelling, and you can’t put weight on the injured area.
Fortunately, most injuries can be managed with nonsurgical remedies such as rest, activity modification, ice, physical therapy, pain relievers, a splint, a cast, or a sling.
However, in some cases, surgery is necessary to fix torn tissue or realign bones. If your injury continues to cause you pain and discomfort, you should make an appointment with a doctor for a proper diagnosis and treatment plan.
Have you experienced a sports-related injury? If you’re an athlete or thinking of joining a team and want to learn how to protect yourself from injury, make an appointment with Dr. King at Tuscaloosa Orthopedic & Joint Institute.
Call the Northport, Alabama, office at 205-391-4440, or send a message to Dr. King and the team here on the website.
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