Sports injuries are common, especially with boys. Sports medicine professionals and orthopedic doctors along with orthopedic surgeons see their fair share of injuries with more than half of their patients being between five years and 24 years of age. Injuries can happen anytime during any sport but about half of all injuries leading to a sports medicine visit are form riding bikes, riding skateboards or skating. School sports also lead an astonishing number of visits to a sports medicine professional with about two million high school athletes getting injured each year. No matter the reason, injuries are likely to happen meaning they need to be addressed and remedied. Some times though, these injuries can leave lasting side effects long after they’ve healed. Read below to see some life long problems related to injuries seen most by a sports medicine professionals.

Sprains

Almost every athlete has dealt with a sprain and most of the time sprains heal quite well. There are times, however that a sprain does not heal as it should and can lead to serious problems throughout life. Serious sprains take longer to heal, but also may not heal completely. This can lead to a weak ankle. A brace can typically help support the ankle, especially during sports or while walking or running. Support is vital to keep from suffering a subsequent injury to the ankle.

Knee Cap Dislocation

This injury isn’t very common, but it can be very serious. Many dislocations can heal on their own, but time is needed for it to heal. It can be hard to patient while your knee cap heals properly which can lead to more dislocations. Aside from the knee pain that is experienced added stress is also put on the knee cap. If this injury doesn’t fully heal you could experience subsequent dislocations all throughout your life.

Tennis Elbow

Tennis elbow is an important injury to address and remedy because of the cause. The cause is overuse of the elbow. Sometimes the other parts of the arm and other muscles are not properly used leading to stress and strain on the elbow. Tennis elbow requires time in order to remedy itself, but sometimes even after ample amounts of time it is still not remedied. This could potentially mean nerve damage has been done. Once tennis elbow does heal, if it does, then it’s important to determine why you got the condition in the first place. Address the overuse of the elbow and how to remedy it. This can keep you from dealing with this condition again in the future.

Arthritis

And yet another condition that can result from sports injuries is arthritis. Injuries to your bones and surrounding ligaments, tendons and muscles can lead to arthritis later down the line. Proper healing and rest and rehab is required to rebuild your muscles and honestly most of the time the proper healing process is not followed through. This can lead to arthritis later down the line. Proper healing and proper therapy or rehab is vital to return your muscles to their pre-injury state, therefore you should consider finishing all of your rehab and not skipping any of it. Thinking more about your future rather than the present can help make this decision an easier one.

Considering all the lasting effects from common injuries you can see why visiting sports medicine professionals no matter how small the injury is can be important. You want to ensure that there is no hidden damage and make sure that all things are done right to lead to a proper recovery. There is nothing worse than rushing a recovery just to end up hurt again. Proper care and proper healing are important and should be addressed rather than ignored. Comfort later in life could very well be affected by these small steps. Don’t ignore your injuries and don’t ignore the recovery process, no matter how tempting it may seem.