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Early Intervention is Key to Quick Recovery

Balanced • December 1, 2020

When an injury begins to develop, the amount of options to enter the healthcare system can be daunting. It’s almost as bad as choosing where to get takeout from for dinner, which can sometimes lead to cooking at home due to the overwhelming amount of choices in Charlottesville. When talking about healthcare, these options may lead to the wait and see what happens method. Wait and see is something almost all of us have done with our healthcare, but it often results in negative consequences. When it comes to our healthcare, it’s best to tackle our problems before they cascade out of our control.

When asked WHERE to begin in the healthcare spectrum following an injury, the answer should be up to you and where you feel comfortable starting. All healthcare professionals have been through extensive schooling to help patients and clients. Obviously, we’re a little biased towards chiropractic and physical therapy for all musculoskeletal issues. Here are a few of the reasons why:

We have been trained to rule-out red flag conditions like fractures and other significant issues, so this is a safe starting point for most injuries
- You should never receive imaging unless it is necessary
- We do not order imaging, unless fracture or other serious pathology is expected, saving you time, money, and exposure to radiation
We have been trained to diagnose and treat most musculoskeletal injuries and conditions to help our patients get better
Our entire curriculum focused on conservative care for musculoskeletal injury, making us experts in diagnosing and caring for these injuries
We have been trained to treat your condition without medications or surgery

In general, you do not need a prescription from your doctor to see a chiropractor or physical therapist in Virginia. This can help to save you time and money, as well as help you get to the route cause of your symptoms without having to cut through all of the red tape.

Now that you have a general understanding about where to start following an injury, now we’ll address WHEN to start. The sooner you seek care, the better for almost every single condition out there. Although money can always be an issue, I can almost guarantee you you will save money if you come in sooner in the injury process. Coming in early allows us to:

Educate you on what is causing the condition and help you understand why it likely happened in the first place
Address your injury early on before it gets worse. If you are not aware of what is causing your pain, we can help identify it
- If you have a sprain or a strain, we can address it and counsel you on how to promote healing
- We generally don’t recommend stopping activity, but teach you how to work around it and load it properly to stimulate recovery
- Sprain and strains will generally get worse if frequency, intensity, time, or type of training is not adjusted: We can help you find the right balance
Prevent injuries from manifesting in different areas. When something hurts, it usually leads to suboptimal movement or guarding of the injured area. If this is prolonged, an ankle injury can progress to involve the knee, hip, and lower back.
Reduce your costs of treatment. If we see you early on in the injury process, we can usually treat it in 2-3 sessions with education and a home program instead of a full course of treatment (10+ visits requiring more supervision). This will help to save you money so you can spend it on new fitness gear!

We are here to treat you and not recommend unnecessary care. We want you to get better as quickly and fully as possible. By accessing our care early in the injury process, you can help us achieve our goals and your goals for care. There is always the option of consulting with one of our providers to see if we are the right place to start for your care. This is just another way we are working to break down the barriers to care. SO, next time you face an injury, please don’t “wait and see” and see your provider early to get back to 100% quickly.