It’s estimated that the average physical therapist sees roughly 100-200 patients each week. With an estimated 38,000 physical therapists currently operating in the US, that adds up to over 400 million physical therapy sessions every year!
What is it that draws so many people to physical therapy solutions? Here are five reasons why physical therapy is so important.
Benefits of Seeing a Physical Therapist
Early Diagnosis
People who have never received physical therapy before sometimes have a misconception that physical therapy services are only for people who have already been injured or gone through surgery. The truth is that so-called “healthy” people can benefit just as much from physical therapy as anyone else.
That’s because physical therapy is a good form of exercise and general health maintenance, which is something that everyone should strive for. More importantly, though, regularly seeing an experienced physical therapist makes it easier to catch physical dysfunction and other issues in their early stages before they become serious problems.
Injury Prevention
Aiding early diagnosis of potential issues isn’t the only advantage physical therapy offers the fit and healthy. It also helps you say fit and healthy by keeping your body in the best possible shape. Physical therapy exercises improve the strength and flexibility of joints, muscles, and ligaments, which means they’re less likely to suffer a tear, sprain, or strain due to accidents or overuse.
Additionally, an experienced physical therapist can quickly identify an individual’s unique strengths and weaknesses, then create a customized workout plan to help protect potential vulnerabilities.
Post-Op Rehabilitation
Having surgery takes a lot out of a person. It can be a traumatic experience for your body; after all, it’s not every day that a total stranger opens you up and starts moving your insides around. Healing can take a lot of time and effort, and if you don’t recover properly, you may never feel or be able to function quite the same ever again.
Post-operative rehabilitation programs aid the body’s natural healing process by retraining each individual part, reminding them how they’re supposed to work, and helping you to acclimate sensations you may not have experienced in some time. Best of all, physical therapy helps cut down on recovery time so you can get back to living your life instead of being cooped up in bed.
Pain Management
The worst thing about chronic pain is that it’s, well, chronic. Even when it goes away, it inevitably comes back, sometimes worse than ever. Living with arthritis, fibromyalgia, and other musculoskeletal disorders is a daily struggle that only gets harder as time goes on.
Medications and surgeries can help, but if you really want to make full use of every weapon in your arsenal, then your best defense against pain is physical therapy. Physical therapy is an effective means of pain management, helping you reduce your discomfort to a more tolerable level or even eliminate it entirely.
Individualized Care
One huge advantage that physical therapy has over other forms of exercise and medical treatment is that it’s not based on a “once size fits all” approach. If your doctor prescribes you medicine and it doesn’t work, the only options you have are to increase the dose or try a different medicine. With physical therapy, the solutions ultimately come from you.
In other words, physical therapy offers individualized care. It’s a form of treatment that takes its cues from your specific needs. A physical therapist will evaluate your condition, capabilities, and lifestyle, then work with you to develop a customizable regimen that works for you.
Visit Mid-County Physical Therapy Today
From injury prevention to individualized treatment, the benefits of physical therapy are many. Whether you’re rehabbing an athletic injury, recovering from surgery, dealing with chronic pain, or just trying to keep in the best possible shape, the healthcare professionals at Mid-County Physical Therapy can help.
Make an appointment with us now and discover all the things that physical therapy can do for you!