Benefits Of Seeing The Orthopaedic Associates Therapy Team
January 9, 2023
When pain due to an injury, surgery, or simply age gets in your way of living life to its fullest, our team at Orthopaedic Associates is here with a fully experienced team and process to get you back to doing what you love.
An integral part of this team are our patient-focused therapists who work alongside our surgeons in order to provide a team approach to your care. This direct access and collaboration develops from day one, so your therapist knows exactly what occurred during surgery and any communication needed can happen between therapists and surgeons. We also have a one-on-one treatment approach, so patients see one physical or occupational therapist from start to finish – not bouncing around to different therapists. This allows YOUR team to get to know your goals and recovery journey.
From a patient’s first session they will meet with their therapist and surgeon to discuss the plan of care and expectations. One of the most important aspects of our team’s job is to get to know who our patients are – what progress you as a patient want to make and what activities you want to get back to. This allows us to create customized treatment plans in order to get you back in motion and enjoying a mobile, independent lifestyle.
Since each patient’s case is so different, the care provided also needs to be unique to you. Therapy can be utilized on its own with non-surgical options and interventions or as part of a total treatment plan that includes surgery. Therapy can also be used to prevent injuries before they even happen. We offer various assessments and evaluations based on the issues you are dealing with in order to see where we are starting from and where we can get you to by the end of your sessions.
Some of our specialties to keep our patients in motion include:
Physical Therapy
Our Physical Therapists have extensive education in the areas of orthopedics, manual therapy, and sports rehabilitation. With the goals of improving strength, function, and mobility, a hand-on approach to recovery is used emphasizing the importance of patient education so that you can follow through with treatments at home.
Our team offers one-on-one sessions, total joint post-op care, and several specific therapy programs including Sportsmetrics ACL prevention and return to sport programs, running assessments and custom running programs, and dry needling. We will talk more about some of these later on in this post.
Occupational Therapy
For patients experiencing trouble performing important daily activities or hobbies, our experienced Occupation Therapy team is here to evaluate and design an individualized program to improve functional abilities.
Since we are often treating hand specific injuries, our staff includes certified hand therapists, specializing in treatments for hands, wrists, elbow, and shoulders. Treatments can include anything from splinting, range of motion, strengthening, manual techniques, and modalities.
Dry Needling
Dry needling is a customized treatment for craniofacial, cervicothoracic, and upper extremity musculoskeletal conditions. It is a form of therapy in which very fine needles are inserted into painful knots in your muscles called myofascial trigger points, tendons, ligaments, or nerves in order to stimulate a healing response.
Pilates Reformer
As part of both our physical and occupational therapy services, we offer use of the Pilates Reformer. A wide variety of exercises can be done on the reformer to help promote and improve stability, strength, flexibility, and posture. One of the best benefits of the reformer is its versatility, allowing us to utilize it with patients suffering from lower or upper extremity pain.
Running Assessments
We offer running assessments which are designed to analyze a runner’s performance in order to create personalized running plans to be used in therapy and help our patients get back to running at full speed. These assessments can also help to prevent injuries in runners, helping them more efficiently and effectively reach their goals.
Sport Focused Specialties
Our Sports Metrics Program works with athletes to prevent injury and reinjury, specifically to the ACL. We also offer Return to Sport Testing where we assess any injury, lower or upper body, to make sure the athlete is safe to return to their sport.
For the convenience of our patients, we offer our therapy services at two of our offices. Our main office in Duluth allows our therapists to work directly with our physicians. While our office in Hermantown provides a spacious fitness gym and offers sport specific programs.
If you believe therapy might be beneficial to you, ask your doctor for a referral or request an appointment at https://www.oaduluth.com/.