When it comes to treatment after physical injury, there are many options you can choose from, such as physical therapy and rehabilitation. With an effective treatment plan, anyone with a physical condition or injury will be able to recover eventually.
For instance, you sustained a serious injury that kept you from walking properly or made you unable to perform simple everyday tasks, you should consult your physician about seeing an urgent care physical therapist. In some cases, a physical therapist may need to see an injured patient more than once to ensure that they’re getting the most out of the therapy.
If you don’t have any physical problems, but the doctor suspects that you might have an underlying problem, the physical therapist will need to conduct diagnostic tests to ensure that the injury isn’t something else. Imaging procedures such as x-rays and MRIs can help facilitate an accurate diagnosis, intervention and assessment of injuries that most physical therapists handle on a regular basis.
What Is Physical Therapy And Rehabilitation?
As mentioned, physical therapy and rehabilitation can be effective ways of dealing with injuries. While these two concepts use different methods of helping patients recover, both can be beneficial.
Primarily, physical therapy, or PT, is a discipline founded to provide healing and recuperation to physically disabled or injured patients. It aims to restore a patient’s function and mobility as well as minimize pain so they can get back to their active lifestyle. In other words, it helps a patient in terms of fitness, mobility, and strength. In physical therapy, the therapist sets up a treatment plan for the patients, uses exercises and other related procedures to alleviate their pain, and educate them as well as their families about their expectations throughout the recovery process.
On the other hand, physical rehabilitation refers to the process of assisting a patient in the recovery from a serious injury. It aims to treat any disability caused by an injury by developing a comprehensive program that helps put the patient’s life back without the need for surgery. In physical rehabilitation, the job of the rehabilitation physician is to diagnose and pinpoint the source of pain, provide non-surgical treatments, and restore the functions lost because of the injuries.
How Physical Therapy Helps One Recover From Injury
There are many theories and techniques used to help people with physical injuries get back to how they used to be. There are even physical therapy methods that can help you feel better instantly. A person who has been injured, or recently had surgery, or can’t get around on his own might want to talk to a doctor about getting the help he needs to return to his normal physical state and activities.
Here are the many ways physical therapy can help speed up the recovery process and return the natural movements of the body:
1. It Helps Increase A Patient’s Mobility
Physical therapy can help increase mobility by using exercises designed for helping with a patient’s movement. After you’re injured or hurt, there’s always the chance that you could be restricted in one area or another.
In addition, physical therapy works by helping your body and mind to get through the trauma and pain and return you to your normal physical health. This type of therapy also aims to help you get back to a place where you can get around on your own, walk, and have other normal activities that you would enjoy without being restricted by your current condition.
If you want to get the most out of physical therapy to help increase your mobility after an injury, below are the basic exercises you can try during your physical therapy sessions:
- Ankle drivers & leg swings — These are aimed to increase your ankle mobility after sustaining an injury.
- Plank & sit-up exercises — These are designed to strengthen your core muscles.
- Stretching exercises — These are used to increase your hip and knee mobility.
- Shoulder dumbbell exercises – These are designed to improve shoulder strength.
- Thoracic spine exercises — These are used to ease shoulder and neck pain.
2. It Helps A Patient Regain Strength
Physical therapy for muscular weakness is a great way to treat injuries and other conditions and strengthen muscles in the long run. It would help if you also consider complementary therapies such as massage to reduce muscle spasms as well as minimize pain and inflammation.
It can gradually help you perform daily tasks with ease again, and it can prevent further damage to your joints. It may also help you get back into sports activities that you previously enjoyed, as physical therapy effectively helps rehabilitate injured muscles.
If you’re experiencing pain or weakness in your joints, this form of therapy might be a great choice for your needs as it helps restore the function of your affected joints, increase strength to help support joints and maintain fitness. When you go for a therapy session for your injured joints, the physical therapist can guide you through body mechanics and proper posture to relieve pain and show you how to effectively use assistive devices such as canes and walkers. Lastly, they can advise you about different treatment options such as hot and cold therapy for joint pain, braces and splints for joint support and many more.
3. It Helps Alleviate Pain
A physiotherapist works closely with his patients to develop a program of exercises and physiotherapy that help reduce the pain and speed up recovery. Physiotherapy has also been used in many arthritis cases, as it improves joint mobility and strength, alleviating pain. Other conditions that can benefit from physiotherapy include back pain and musculoskeletal disorders such as whiplash.
A physical therapist for reduced pain can provide treatment by using a range of different techniques. They may offer massage to help ease the pain and take muscle groups through a series of exercise routines that will strengthen and stretch them. The patient may be asked to perform specific exercises and stretches to relieve muscle strain and pain. This type of therapy is also useful in preventing further injury and improving the patient’s overall health. The patient needs to talk with their physiotherapist about any specific needs they have to receive the right levels of physiotherapy regularly.
4. It Helps The Patient Cope With Emotional Distress From Injury
Physical therapy can also benefit an injured person mentally and emotionally. Some people may experience emotional distress from the injury because they may no longer be able to do the things they used to do or return to their normal movements. An injured person may suffer from depression after an accident.
Fortunately, physical therapy can help a patient get past some of these emotions and deal with them better through the exercises they do. For example, exercises done during physical therapy sessions may help reduce stress and depression, improve mood and mental alertness and make the patient feel accomplished and successful. this is certainly important for many reasons as it can help a person deal with a traumatic situation’s mental repercussions.
Summary
Physical therapy exercises can help the patient regain mobility, balance, and function. They reduce pain and stress, improve muscle tone, and improve a range of motion and muscle contraction. A complete rehabilitation program includes orthopedic physical therapy, strengthening, stretching, balancing, motor coordination, balance training, neurological rehabilitation, speech rehabilitation, posture correction, occupational rehabilitation, and ultrasound therapy. Rehabilitation exercises are often done in a combination of types and involve a gradual increase in intensity.
A patient who has started with rehabilitation exercises will need to follow the rehabilitation specialist’s guidelines for several weeks or months. These methods can help a person regain a normal life, function normally again, and gain some independence while getting some mental and emotional advantages against the pain and suffering they’ve been through.
