Am I a Good Candidate for Joint Injections?

You have a bum knee or an achy elbow, and you’re tired of your life being limited by these painful joints. Unfortunately, the key to great long-term joint health often requires strengthening the joint, but the pain prevents you from taking these necessary steps. 

In other words, you’re stuck in a vicious circle in which your joint pain persists and you’re left managing the symptoms instead of the underlying problem.

With the goal of finding meaningful solutions for joint pain, our team here at Pain Medicine Consultants offers joint injections, which can bridge the gap between a painful joint and a healthy one that will serve you well for years to come.

The causes of joint pain

There are many conditions that can lead to joint pain, starting with the most common, arthritis, which is a catchall term for more than 100 diseases that lead to joint pain and inflammation. More than 92 million adults in the United States report doctor-diagnosed arthritis or arthritis symptoms. 

While arthritis certainly leads the pack when it comes to joint pain, other conditions can pose problems, such as:

• Tendinitis in your joints due to overuse
• Ligament damage due to injury
• Bursitis

One of the most common treatments for each of these conditions is joint injection.

The role of joint injections

Our joint injections are designed to relieve your discomfort and to restore movement to your joint, which means tackling both the pain and the inflammation.

Our joint injections contain two components:

• Steroid to relieve inflammation
• A local anesthetic to provide pain relief

After we inject your joint, the local anesthetic goes to work immediately to remedy your pain. But the real value lies in the steroid, which reduces the inflammation, allowing you to take longer-term steps to improve your joint health, such as physical therapy.

Getting your joint injection

If we feel that you can benefit from a joint injection, the procedure is very quick and easy, and we perform it right in our offices. If necessary, we use fluoroscopy (X-ray guidance) to ensure that we inject the right area, though this isn’t always required.

In almost all cases, we administer the injection(s), and you’re free to return home afterward. As we mentioned, you may experience immediate relief from the local anesthetic, but the steroids may take a few days to relieve the inflammation. You should plan on taking it easy on the treated joint for several days afterward.

As for how long the joint injections provide relief, that varies from one person to the next. Some people enjoy months of pain-free movement and simply return for another injection if their symptoms return.

What is very important are the steps you take during this period of relief, namely the physical therapy we mentioned earlier. Through physical therapy, you can strengthen your joint in a way that can help prevent the joint pain from returning.

If you’d like to learn whether you’re a good candidate for joint injections, please contact one of our locations in Pleasant Hill, Pleasanton, or Corte Madera, California, to set up an appointment.