ACL Tear Greater Cedar Hill, MO. ACL tears can suddenly obstruct your active routine and daily life. One moment you’re sprinting down the field, playing your favorite sport or having fun with your kids, and the next second you’re don’t know if you’ll get to play or even go to work again. At Axes Physical Therapy in Cedar Hill, MO, we have devoted our practice to helping our patients regain their strength and mobility, and getting them back to the activities they love. Our ACL tear rehabilitation specialists work with you as a team and put in place personalized treatments plans that have been empirically proven to be effective. If you’ve sustained an ACL tear, or any other injury, in Cedar Hill, MO, contact us online or find the most convenient Axes location for you. Our priority is getting every patient positive results and getting you back to what’s most important to you, whether that means running the bases in your local Cedar Hill, MO league, or picking up your grandchildren without any pain.

The Anterior Cruciate Ligament | Cedar Hill, MO Physical Therapy

Ligaments are bands found in joints made of tough, pliable fibrous tissue that connect two bones. The ligaments in the knee help maintain stability in your knee by connecting your tibia (shinbone) to your femur (thigh bone). The ACL, or anterior cruciate ligament, is in the center of your knee and crosses the posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) so they make an “x”. The ACL and PCL work together to stabilize the forward and backward movement of your knee, and the ACL prevents the tibia from slipping too far forward on the femur and provides rotational stability.

ACL tears can be either partial or complete. Depending on the grade of your ACL tear, your capacity to bear weight and your motion will be affected. Regardless of how severe your injury, trust in the Cedar Hill, MO licensed physical therapists of Axes to help you reach a complete recovery.

Why an ACL Tear Happens | Cedar Hill, MO Physical Therapy

There are up to 250,000 ACL injuries in the United States each year, and it is one of the most common knee injuries and sports injuries. They are common in contact sports that entail frequent and fast cutting and changing directions, such as football, baseball, soccer, and basketball. According to reporting from the National Athletic Trainers’ Association, 70% of ACL tears happen in non-contact injuries, such as cutting rapidly, and the rest are due to direct blows to the knee. External and internal factors could both be at play when you sustain an ACL tear:

External Factors

These are when your motion is obstructed immediately before the injury. Some examples are:

• Landing on uneven ground or landing with improper form
• Being hit by something or someone
• A sudden reduction in speed or switching direction
• Swiveling with a firmly planted foot
• Suffering a direct blow to the knee

Internal Factors

These are related to the structure and anatomy of the body. Some examples are:

• The differences in anatomy between men and women
• How flexible the hamstring and other surrounding muscles are
• Differences in genetics

ACL tears don’t just happen in sports, falls and work-related injuries can harm they ACL as well. The elderly are also at high risk, as our bodies degenerate as we age. Women are 4-6 times more likely to sustain an ACL tear, likely as a result of anatomical differences.

Symptoms of an ACL Tear | Cedar Hill, MO Physical Therapy

After an ACL tear, you’ll likely feel pain at the center of the knee. An ACL tear does not always cause significant pain except if other parts of the knee were also injured. Some indicators that you may have sustained an ACL tear include:

• A “popping” sensation or sound in your knee
• Having to cease activity
• Rapid swelling
• Loss of range of motion
• Instability when putting weight on your knee

If you suspect you’ve suffered an ACL tear, it’s critical to visit a doctor or a licensed physical therapist in Cedar Hill, MO to diagnose your injury and start the treatment you need to recover. We offer no-cost, no strings attached injury screenings and have a great network of trusted doctors in Cedar Hill, MO that we can connect you with. Your Axes physical or occupational therapist, your doctor and medical providers, and you will join forces and work together to ensure your recovery is safe and efficient.

ACL Tear Treatments | Cedar Hill, MO Physical Therapy

It is important to get prompt, effective, personalized treatment for your ACL tear. If you delay, or your treatment is ineffective, it can result in complications such as obesity or osteoarthritis, which can significantly impact you for the remainder of your life.

Immediately after your ACL tear, you should use over-the-counter pain medication and the R.I.C.E. method to mitigate pain and inflammation. A doctor will then examine you, assess your mobility, and likely order an MRI to verify the ACL tear and judge the completeness and grade of your tear.

Because ligaments do not receive blood flow, a complete ACL tear cannot regenerate on its own. This means that you will need the help of licensed professional physical therapists in order to get back to the activities you love. Surgery is the only means available to completely heal an ACL tear. So, surgery is often necessary for younger people, athletes who need a fully healthy ACL in order to play, patients whose ACL tears were accompanied by other significant injury to their knee, or those whose ACL tear causes their knee to buckle in basic, everyday activities. ACL surgery is generally done by taking a graft from another tendon — either one of yours or a deceased donor’s — and then using small incisions to attach the graft to the femur and tibia.

Once the new ligament is attached, you still have a long way to go before you’ll feel fully back to normal. After surgery, you’ll probably be given crutches so you can get around for the next few weeks, as your quadriceps muscles will weaken from disuse. Axes Physical Therapy offers both pre- and post-surgical rehabilitation for ACL tears in Cedar Hill, MO to get you the best results for both your physical rehabilitation and your operation. Our ACL tear physical therapy specialists will be by your side throughout your recovery process with proven, customized physical therapy. Our treatment methods will help to:

• Reduce pain and swelling
• Provide patient education so you understand your injury and why our methods work
• Gradually and effectively get you back to bearing weight
• Provide you with a brace and teach you how to safely use it
• Do movement exercises and balance exercises to increase mobility
• Do strength exercises to return you to full strength
• Possibly use electrical stimulation to return strength and flexibility

When you work with the experienced Cedar Hill, MO area physical therapists of Axes and take an active role in your rehabilitation, you have the best chance of a complete and quick recovery. Before you know it, we will get you back to tearing up the local flag football league, or just enjoying the ability to climb stairs without feeling any instability in your knee.

How to Prevent an ACL Tear | Cedar Hill, MO Physical Therapy

Unfortunately, second ACL tears are common and they can have life-long consequences. As part of our ACL tear physical therapy services in Cedar Hill, MO, our Certified Athletic Trainers will help you understand the best practices that help to avoid another ACL tear in the future. We recommend some of the following steps to prevent further injury:

• Strengthen your core
• Strengthen your hip and leg muscles
• Practice proper form, for example landing evenly on both feet
• Maintain flexibility
• Increase your balance
• Perform warm-up exercises before sports or other physical activities
• Make sure you are using appropriate footwear

Our physical therapists committed themselves not only to retuning you to the activities you love, but doing what we can to make certain that you can carry on doing them without being disrupted by another injury.

Some of the other services we offer in Cedar Hill, MO are:

• Stroke Rehabilitation
• Hip Replacement Physical Therapy
• Workers Comp' Physical Therapy
• Migraine Relief
• Sprain and Strain Treatment
• Geriatric Physical Therapy
• Injury Rehabilitation
• Pain Management Services
• TMJ Treatment
• Herniated Disc Treatment

ACL Tear in Cedar Hill, MO | Axes Physical Therapy

It is normal to experience anxieties about your prognosis and road to recovery after being seriously injured. If you’ve sustained an ACL tear, you probably want to get back to your normal, active lifestyle as quickly as possible. Trust in the knowledgeable professionals of Axes Physical Therapy to work with you to design a proven, personalized physical therapy plan to return you to the basketball court, bowling alley, or just back to your normal, pain-free daily activities. Contact us online or call the location are closest to you.