ACL Tear Greater Grantwood Village, MO. ACL tears can unexpectedly upset your active routine and daily life. One second you’re sprinting down the court, playing your favorite sport or having fun with your kids, and the next instant you’re wondering if you’ll get to play or even go to work again. At Axes Physical Therapy in Grantwood Village, MO, we have devoted our practice to restoring our patients’ mobility and returning them to the activities they love. Our ACL tear rehabilitation specialists work in tandem with you as a team and develop tailored treatments plans that have been empirically proven to be effective. If you’ve sustained an ACL tear, or any other injury, in Grantwood Village, MO, contact us online or locate the most convenient Axes location for you. We dedicate ourselves to getting every patient positive results and getting you back to what’s most important to you, whether that means breaking defender’s ankles on a Grantwood Village, MO basketball court, or carrying your children on your shoulders without any pain.

What is the ACL? | Grantwood Village, MO Physical Therapy

Ligaments are bands found in joints made of tough, flexible connective 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, runs down the center of your knee and forms an “X” with the posterior cruciate ligament (PCL). The ACL and PCL work in concert to control the front and back movement of your knee, and the ACL safeguards the tibia from sliding too far forward on the femur and provides stability when the joint rotates.

ACL tears can be either partial or complete. Depending on the grade of your ACL tear, your ability to put weight on your knee and range of motion will be lowered. Regardless of how significant your injury, trust in the Grantwood Village, MO licensed physical therapists of Axes to help you attain a complete recovery.

Why an ACL Tear Happens | Grantwood Village, MO Physical Therapy

There are up to 250,000 ACL injuries nationwide annually, and it is one of the most common knee injuries and sports injuries. Athletes who play contact sports and/or sports where there is a lot of cutting and changing direction are the most likely to get ACL tears. According to reporting from the National Athletic Trainers’ Association, the vast majority of ACL tears occur in non-contact injuries, such as cutting quickly, and the rest are caused by direct blows to the knee. External and internal factors could both be at play when you suffer an ACL tear:

External Factors

These are when your motion is disrupted just before the injury. Some examples are:

• Landing on uneven footing or landing with improper form
• Something or someone knocking into you
• A sudden reduction in speed or changing direction
• Swiveling with a firmly planted foot
• Sustaining a direct blow to the knee

Internal Factors

These concern the structure and anatomy of the knee and legs. Examples include:

• The differences in anatomy between men and women
• Flexibility of the hamstring
• Genetic variations

While many ACL tears happen in sports, they are also common in falls and work-related injuries. They can become more common as we age and our bodies weaken. Women are 4-6 times more likely to suffer an ACL tear, likely due to anatomical differences.

Symptoms of an ACL Tear | Grantwood Village, MO Physical Therapy

Following an ACL tear, you’ll likely feel pain at the center of the knee. An ACL tear does not always cause sever pain unless other structural damage was done to the knee. Some signals that you might have torn your ACL are:

• Feeling or hearing a pop in your knee
• Not being able to continue activity
• Rapid swelling
• Loss of range of motion
• Instability when bearing weight

If you think you’ve suffered an ACL tear, it’s critical to contact a doctor or a licensed physical therapist in Grantwood Village, MO to diagnose your injury and come up with the treatment plan you need to recover. We offer free, no-obligation injury screenings and know many trusted doctors in Grantwood Village, MO that we can connect you with. Your Axes physical or occupational therapist is an essential part of your recovery team, working closely with you and your doctors and medical providers to collaborate on your safe and efficient recovery.

How to Treat an ACL Tear | Grantwood Village, MO Physical Therapy

It is vital to get prompt, effective, personalized treatment for your ACL tear. If you don’t, it can result in problems such as obesity or osteoarthritis, which can greatly affect your quality of life.

Directly following your ACL tear, you should use over-the-counter pain medication and the R.I.C.E. method to mitigate pain and inflammation. In an examination, a doctor will assess your mobility, and likely order an MRI to verify the ACL tear and judge the severity of the injury.

Because ligaments do not receive blood flow, a complete ACL tear will not be able to regenerate on its own. That is why the aid of a licensed professional physical therapist is necessary to get back to the activities you love. The only way to fully repair an ACL tear is through surgery. So, surgery is often recommended for younger people, athletes who need a fully functioning ACL in order to perform, patients with other serious damage to their knee, or those whose ACL tear causes pain or weakness when carrying out basic, everyday tasks. In an ACL surgery, a surgeon will remove the injured ACL, take a graft from another one of your or a donors tendons, and use small incisions to attach it to the bones.

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 need crutches to move around, as your quadriceps muscles will weaken from disuse. Axes Physical Therapy offers both pre- and post-surgical rehabilitation for ACL tears in Grantwood Village, MO to get you a positive outcome for both your physical rehabilitation and your surgery. Our ACL tear physical therapy professionals will work with you throughout your recovery process with a personalized treatment plan that has been demonstrated to work. As part of your treatment plan, we will:

• Reduce pain and swelling
• Educate you on your injury and the rehab process
• Gradually and effectively allow you to put weight on your knee again
• Fit you for a brace and teach you how to safely use it
• Do movement exercises and balance exercises to return range of motion
• Perform strength exercises to return you to full strength
• Potentially use electrical stimulation as a supplement to the exercises

When you work with the knowledgeable Grantwood Village, MO area physical therapists of Axes and take an active role in your rehabilitation, you have the greatest 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 your knee buckling.

How to Prevent an ACL Tear | Grantwood Village, MO Physical Therapy

Unfortunately, second ACL tears are common and they can have permanent repercussions. Included in your treatment program in Grantwood Village, MO, our Certified Athletic Trainers will help you understand the best practices that help to avoid another ACL tear in the future. Some of the preventive methods you can take in order to prevent further injury are:

• Having a strong core
• Strengthen your hip and leg muscles
• Practice proper form, for example always landing with your feet directly over your knee
• Maintain flexibility
• Increase your balance
• Always warm up before sports or other physical activities
• Always wear appropriate footwear

Our physical therapists dedicate themselves not only to retuning you to the things you love to do, but doing everything possible to make certain that you can continue doing them without being disrupted by another injury.

Some of the other services we offer in Grantwood Village, MO are:

• Physical Therapy Clinic
• Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Treatment
• Sciatica Treatment
• Sports Medicine
• Hand Pain Physical Therapy
• Foot & Ankle Pain Treatment
• Hip Pain Treatment
• Plantar Fasciitis Treatment
• Stroke Rehabilitation
• Hip Replacement Physical Therapy

ACL Tear in Grantwood Village, MO | Axes Physical Therapy

It is normal to be apprehensive about your prognosis and road to recovery after suffering a severe injury. If you’ve sustained an ACL tear, you might be impatient to return to your active lifestyle and physical activities you value. Trust in the knowledgeable professionals of Axes Physical Therapy to work in concert with you to implement a proven, customized physical therapy plan to return you to the football field, gymnasts’ mat, or just back to your normal, pain-free life. Contact us online or call the location are closest to you.