Osteopathic treatments are a term that are not well known by the general population. However, they are never forgotten by people who have utilized osteopathic physicians in the care of their musculoskeletal pain. Whether it’s chronic pain or acute pain caused by any incidents such as sports or accidents, osteopathic physicians are well-trained to not only evaluate the cause of the pain but also treated effectively with numerous skills that they have obtained in their specialty as a physician.

Osteopathic treatments are sometimes compared to chiropractic treatments in the manner that they treat musculoskeletal pain by manual adjustments. Although this is true, osteopathic physicians have a lot more in their toolbelt then chiropractors. Because an osteopathic physician is a medical doctor with specialty in the musculoskeletal field, he or she can use other useful and adjunct tools to augment their manual therapy. These tools may include medications, or injectable procedures which go hand-in-hand extremely well with their manual therapy otherwise known as OMT (osteopathic manual therapy).

As far as the knee pain is concerned, an osteopathic physician will be able to evaluate fully the origin and the underlying cause of this knee pain, whether it be a dysfunction of the Cartilage, meniscus, internal ligaments, external ligaments, attached tendons, or surrounding muscles or fascia.

Once the primary, secondary, and tertiary causes of knee pain is diagnosed by your osteopathic physician, he or she is able to utilize osteopathic treatments such as myofascial release, soft-tissue manipulations of the muscles, muscle energy techniques, articulation techniques, or high velocity low amplitude adjustments to augment possible other modalities such as trigger point injection therapy, platelet rich plasma therapy, Visco- supplementation therapy, prolotherapy or others that will enhance and stimulate the body to strengthen the weakened or deteriorated Cartilage or ligaments of the knees.

Osteopathic Treatment for Knee Pain in Los Angeles, Santa Monica and Bakersfield

Osteopathic medicine is also known for its comprehensive and personalized treatment modalities. Therefore, the treatment plan devised by your osteopathic physician for your knee pain will aim at curing your knee pain rather than offering a temporary masking of your knee pain.

Below you will see an example of the difference between traditional treatment of knee arthritis versus an osteopathic approach to knee arthritis pain:

Arthritis of the knee is a dysfunction of the knee joint that involves narrowing of the Cartilage — which causes abnormality in synovial fluid — and it causes a dys-balanced posture –which causes weakening of the surrounding knee ligaments — which causes overstimulation of surrounding muscles to spasm — which can cause stress on the hip and spine.

1. The traditional method of dealing with arthritis has been to resort to either pharmaceutical pain meds such as anti-inflammatories or narcotic pain medications. This may be accompanied by physical therapy exercises. And in extreme cases a complete knee replacement surgery which most likely can cause further problems.
2. An osteopathic approach
   1. Provide ample cushioning in the knee — this can be done by an injection therapy every 6 to 12 months
   2. Reverse the sickened fluid of the knee joint — this can be done by appropriate injectable therapies every 6 to 12 months
   3. Strengthened the weakened ligaments — by way of prolotherapy
   4. Provide the appropriate growth factors for Cartilage to starts rebuilding itself — by way of platelet rich plasma or other injectable therapies
   5. treat the muscles and the fascia to allow for better stance and posture with less pain associated with these tissues– this can be done by way of appropriate osteopathic manual therapy.