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From Sports Injury to Back Pain Conditions – We Can Help

At Northbridge Chiropractic, we offer a range of comprehensive and holistic chiropractic treatments in Perth. Using a combination of massage, dry needling, adjustments and traditional chiropractic care, we can help you with a variety of conditions from sports injuries to chronic conditions.

We can help reduce your pain, recover faster and improve your quality of life with simple, safe and effective treatments. Below, we look at some of the conditions we can help you with.

Low Back Pain

There are a variety of reasons why you may be experiencing pain, soreness or stiffness in your lower back. Below are a few conditions that can cause these symptoms, however you should visit an experienced chiropractor for a proper examination and diagnosis.

Disc Bulge

Intervertebral discs act as shock absorbers, sitting between each vertebra in the spine. You can injure your discs from a one-off incident such as lifting something too heavy or from wear and tear over time. When injured, the disc can start to bulge and cause irritation to the nerve next to it as well as surrounding muscles and joints.

At Northbridge Chiropractic, our treatment for disc bulges involves muscle therapy to reduce the pain and spasms in the adjacent muscles as well as gentle adjustments to the spine to regain flexibility and take pressure off the injured disc.

Disc Bulge Diagram

Facet Joint Injuries

Facet joints are a pair of joints that sit between each vertebra. They guide movement of that vertebral segment and, like discs, can be injured from wear or tear or from a one-off injury. When injured, the facet joint can become inflamed and irritate the nerve next to it and surrounding muscles and joints.

At Northbridge Chiropractic, our treatment for facet injuries involves muscle therapy to reduce the pain and spasms in the adjacent muscles as well as gentle adjustments to the spine to regain flexibility and take pressure off the facet joint.

Facet Joint Injuries Diagram

SI Joint Injuries

Your sacroiliac (SI) joints link your lower spine and pelvis. The sacrum, more commonly known as the tailbone, connects on either side of your pelvic bones to form your SI joints. The SI joints play an essential role as a stable base that supports your body weight, allowing only a few degrees of movement.

SI joints can be placed under strain and feel painful when they move too much or too little. This can happen due to trauma or sustained postures such as sitting at a desk. Adjustments are effective for restoring proper SI joint movement. Soft tissue therapy applied to the sacroiliac ligaments can also be helpful.

SI Joint Injuries 3D

Sciatica

Sciatica is pain in the buttock and leg caused by pressure on nerves in the lower back. Pain originates in the spine and radiates down the back of the leg and typically affects one side of the body. Sciatica can be caused by slipped discs, pinched nerves or some forms of arthritis. Chiropractic therapy is affecting at relieving the pain and treating the condition.

Mid and Upper Back Pain

Mid back pain is often described as pain or discomfort between the shoulder blades. It can feel quite central or it can isolate to one side. Sometimes pain can start to radiate into the back of the shoulder or into the chest. This pain can be from stiffness in the joints of the thoracic spine or tension in the muscles of the mid and upper back.

Other symptoms of upper back pain we can treat include rib pain with breathing and poor posture. Effective treatment methods include spinal adjustment, trigger point therapy, dry needling, myofascial release – all of which are performed by a highly trained chiropractor.

Shoulder Pain

Should pain can come in a variety of forms, ranging from mild discomfort to serious pain. It can be caused by specific injuries to the joints, muscles, tendons, ligaments and cartilage or wear and tear from old injuries. Below are a few conditions that can cause shoulder pain, however you should visit an experienced chiropractor for a proper examination and diagnosis.

Rotator Cuff Injury

The rotator cuff is a group of muscles and tendons around the shoulder joint. They keep the head of your upper arm bone firmly within the shallow socket of the shoulder. A rotator cuff injury can cause an aching sensation in the shoulder. They occur most commonly in people who perform overhead motions repeatedly in their jobs or sports. For example, carpenters, painters and baseball and tennis players.

Shoulder Impingement

Shoulder impingement syndrome is a condition where the rotator cuff tendons in your shoulder are intermittently trapped and compressed during shoulder movements. Impingement describes the impact of bone into the rotator cuff tendon or bursa. This results in injury to the shoulder tendons and bursa, causing inflammation, swelling and painful shoulder movements.

Bicipital Tendinopathy

Bicipital tendinopathy is an injury in one of your shoulder’s bicep tendons. It is caused by overuse, tendon impingement, shoulder joint instability or trauma. It commonly happens alongside other shoulder conditions like rotator cuff injuries and shoulder impingements. Bicipital tendinopathy is common amongst people with jobs that involve overhead shoulder work or heavy lifting and people that play sports that involve throwing as well as swimming, gymnastics and some contact sports.

AC Joint Injury

Your acromioclavicular (AC) joint is the joint at the top of your shoulder between your collarbone and shoulder blade. AC joint injuries are caused when the ligaments supporting the acromioclavicular joint are overstretched. This is commonly caused by direct force trauma. For example, when a person collides with a solid object or surface such as a fall from a bicycle or a football tackle that results in the shoulder hitting the ground.

Elbow Pain

Elbow conditions are commonly seen in tennis and golf players. Tennis elbow is caused by repetitive tension being placed through the forearm muscles. This leads to inflammation and scar tissue forming in the muscles and tendons. It’s generally associated with the outer elbow while golfer’s elbow tends to affect the inner elbow.

However, you don’t have to be a tennis or gold player to suffer from elbow pain. It can also be a result of tendon degeneration, resulting in feeling pain when you:

  • Lift something
  • Open doors
  • Make a fist or grip an object
  • Raise your hand or straighten your wrist

At Northbridge Chiropractic, we can help relieve the pain and regain strength by working out the scar tissue, improving muscle flexibility and correcting any joint movement issues. We can also help other common injuries seen in tennis players such as ankle, hamstring and groin injuries as well as shin splints.

Wrist Pain

The biggest culprit of wrist pain is overuse, for example, repetitive gripping and twisting of the arm. Common sufferers of wrist pain are desk workers who cause micro-trauma to their wrist ligaments, joints and bones when working without keeping their wrist in a neutral position, leading to a Repetitive Stress Injury (RSI).

Common symptoms include:

  • Clicking
  • Soreness
  • Stiffness
  • Numbness
  • Swelling
  • Difficulty moving wrist

A trained chiropractor can effectively treat wrist injuries by providing Active Release Technique (ART) to the muscle tissue and providing adjustments to the carpal bones of the wrist.

Knee Pain

Knee pain and knee injuries are extremely common. There are many causes, ranging from soft tissue injuries like ligament sprains and muscle strains to bone conditions and biomechanical dysfunction. They can even result from sciatica. It’s essential to get a proper examination and diagnosis from a trained professional to determine the specific cause of your knee pain or knee injury.

Additionally, it is important for the biomechanics of the hip and ankle be checked and corrected. This is because knee movement is strongly influenced by the movement and strength of these areas. At Northbridge Chiropractic we not only treat the area of pain, but identify the true cause.

Runner’s Knee (ITB Friction Syndrome)

ITB friction syndrome is one of the most common causes of “Runner’s Knee”. It is an overuse injury caused by repeated trauma rather than a specific incident. The ITB or iliotibial band, is a long, thin band of fascia that runs down the outside of your thigh and attaches to a bony protuberance on the outside of the knee. It repetitively slides, causing excess friction when bent at 30 degrees, which is common when your foot strikes the ground while running.

Jumper’s Knee (Patellar Tendinopathy)

Patellar tendinopathy, or Jumper’s Knee, is an injury to the patellar tendon commonly suffered by people who put their knees through strenuous workouts such as sports that require rapid jumping or stopping from high speed. The patellar tendon extends downward, attaching the rear of the kneecap and the front of the shin bone.

Ankle Pain

Ankle injuries are very common. Injury to any of the many ankle bones, ligaments or tendons and several types of arthritis can cause ankle pain. Common causes include:

  • Ankle sprains
  • Plantar fasciitis
  • Morton’s neuroma
  • Achilles strains
  • Heel pain, bunions

Foot bones can shift out of their normal alignment during an ankle sprain. Depending on the pain and severity of the sprain, chiropractic adjustments are effective way of treating and preventing ankle pain.

Hip Pain

There are multiple structures that can become injured or irritated and lead to hip pain. The hip is a ball and socket joint; lined with cartilage, surrounded by a capsule and held secure by ligaments. Movement of the hip joint is controlled by multiple muscles (including hip flexors, glutes, adductors). Any of these structures can become injured and cause limitations of movement as well as pain.

Some causes include:

  • Arthritis
  • Piriformis syndrome
  • Hamstring strains
  • Sports injuries

Depending on your diagnosis, your treatment plan may include chiropractic adjustments to improve joint mobility, as well as muscle therapies (such as trigger point therapy, dry needling and gua sha) to release the joint capsule and surrounding muscles. Our chiropractors are highly trained and will be able to identify the source of your problem and will be able to recommend a tailored treatment plan.

Sprains and Strains

There are multiple joints, muscles, ligaments and tendons that can become overused, injured, tight and/or painful. Often pain and stiffness of the low back is related to both spinal inflexibility as well as muscular tension. We can examine you thoroughly and get to the bottom of exactly what is going on.

Improving Strength in the Joints

Proper muscle tension and absence of trigger points (knots) allows muscle fibres to contract/relax at the appropriate times leading to better muscle control and coordination. Improving strength isn’t as simple as doing a huge amount of reps. For a movement or a lift to be strong, your joint needs to be in a correct and stable position. A stable joint means that the passive stabilisers (ligaments and joint capsule) are tight and hold the joint strong.

A lack of joint mobility can mean that the joint doesn’t have the flexibility to get into a stable position. If a joint is in an unstable position, the active stabilisers (muscles, tendons) have to work overtime just to keep the joint strong and protected. This means you waste a lot of energy simply stabilising the joint and less energy can be spent performing the lift or movement.

Glutes and Hamstring Pain

There can be multiple reasons as to why the muscles of the leg (such as the gluteals, hip flexors and hamstrings) become tight and/or painful. Things like prolonged sitting, running, kicking sports (muay thai, soccer, football etc) as well as spinal inflexibility can contribute to tension and therefore reduced function in these muscles.

Muscle therapies such as trigger point therapy, dry needling and gua sha can be useful in relieving tension and restoring proper range of motion into these tissues. Restoring proper joint mobility into the lumbar and pelvic joints with spinal adjustment can also aid in improving biomechanics.

Neck Pain and Headaches

Headaches can have multiple triggers – dehydration, diet, medications, hormones, poor posture etc. They can also be triggered by tension in the neck and dysfunction in the cervical spine. There are a number of pain-sensitive structures in the cervical (upper neck) and occipital (back of head) regions including the joints of the cervical spine, ligaments and muscles that can trigger headaches.

Effective treatment methods include spinal adjustment, trigger point therapy, dry needling, myofascial release – all of which are performed by a highly trained chiropractor. Your chiropractor will also be able to advise you on ways to reduce headache recurrence such as postural and dietary changes as well as postural exercises.

Shin Splints

Medial tibial stress syndrome, or shin splints, refers to pain felt anywhere from along the shinbone from knee to ankle. Common reasons for this pain is overuse such as running, dancing or trying to exercise beyond your current level of fitness. Shin splints are caused by an inflammation of the muscles, tendons, and bone tissue around your tibia. See a trained professional for an appropriate treatment plan as the right approach varies depending on the particular injury.

Treatment may include muscle therapy (such as trigger point, graston, ART) applied to the inflamed muscles and tendons as well as examination and correction of foot biomechanics and gait (the way you walk/run).

Make an Appointment Today

Are you suffering from any of the above conditions? Call Northbridge Chiropractic on 08 9227 9341 or make an appointment online for chiropractic care in Perth. Our experienced practitioners will evaluate your condition, whether lower back pain or a knee injury, and recommend a personalised treatment.

Northbridge Chiropractic | (08) 9227 9341