Orthopaedic Physical Therapy

In orthopaedics, physical therapy, or PT as it is commonly referred to, uses hands-on care, patient education and prescribed movement to improve a patient’s quality of life. Working with your orthopaedic specialist, a physical therapist can help you improve mobility and function, manage pain and chronic disease, recover from and prevent injury, and avoid surgery or extensive rehabilitation afterward.

What are the benefits of physical therapy?

By developing a strategic treatment plan, physical therapy offers care tailored to your injury or condition, age and ability, body, and lifestyle. According to the American Physical Therapy Association, physical therapy can help:

• Maximize Your Movement: Physical therapists identify, diagnose, and treat movement problems to help you keep or restore as much function as possible. Physical function and movement are vital to your overall health, wellness, fitness and independence.
• Achieve the Recommended Amount of Physical Activity: Regular physical activity can benefit your physical, mental, and social health. It also helps prevent or improve chronic conditions and overcome barriers to physical activity.
• Manage Pain Safely: Physical therapy can help you reduce or avoid the need for risky pain medicines. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends safe, effective options like physical therapy to manage most long-term pain.
• Avoid Surgery: Pain and movement problems can lead to chronic disease and unwanted surgeries. Physical therapists help address these problems to reduce symptoms, prevent them from getting worse and prevent new problems. This can help you avoid the need for surgery and the risks and costs that come with it. Research shows that physical therapy is as effective as surgery for conditions such as meniscus tears, knee arthritis and rotator cuff tears. Surgery is not always avoidable. Physical therapists can help you prepare for and recover after any needed surgery.
• Take an Active Role in Your Recovery: Not only do physical therapists work collaboratively with our orthopaedic specialists to ensure patients receive comprehensive care, but they also empower patients to be active participants in their treatment.

How does physical therapy work?

Physical therapy is primarily exercises that focus on specific movements that improve mobility coordination and muscle strength. Sessions with a physical therapist mainly involve educating patients on what activities to do and how to do them correctly. The physical therapist begins by demonstrating the movement and then allowing the patient to mimic the exercise.

Therapists may also move parts of the patient’s body in a certain way, called passive exercises. These guided movements may be needed to improve the ability to move a stiff or locked joint. They can also prepare the patient’s body for active exercises if, for example, they can’t move their leg or arm themselves yet. Other than exercises, massage and hand movements to relax muscles and connective tissue and physical therapy treatments based on physical stimuli may be appropriate for the patient. 

At North Florida Bone & Joint Specialists, on-site physical therapy is available at the Davis Highway and Midway office locations. Dr. Sonya Ahmed specializes in various foot and ankle conditions and offers a wide range of innovative procedures, including minimally invasive treatment and surgical intervention. If you have any questions or concerns about your foot health, please call 850-435-4800 or complete our online Appointment Request form to schedule a visit.