Knee Pain
Knee pain has a way of quietly taking activities off the table, and most people who've dealt with it have already tried something that didn't fix it.
We see patients who've been told a knee replacement or meniscus surgery is the only option, who've had a cortisone shot that helped briefly and then didn't, or who've been handed an exercise sheet that never changed even as the pain continued. Some of our own patients avoided a scheduled knee replacement once testing showed what was actually driving the pain.
Why Knee Pain Gets Misdiagnosed
The knee takes load from the hip and the ankle as much as it generates its own, so pain in the knee can trace back to weakness or restriction somewhere else in the chain entirely. A stiff hip, a weak quad, or a movement pattern that overloads one side of the joint can all show up as knee pain.
Treating the knee in isolation usually means treating a guess. We test first so treatment is aimed at what we actually find.
How We Evaluate It
We run strength testing on the quad, hamstring, and hip muscles, which returns a percentile against your age group, range of motion testing at the knee, and video analysis of your squat, gait, or the specific movement that triggers your pain. You see the same numbers we see before we talk about treatment.
What Knee Pain Can Mean
Meniscus irritation, ligament strain, patellar tracking issues, arthritis, and compensation patterns from a weak hip can all present as knee pain. Some of these respond well to conservative treatment. Some need imaging or a surgical consult, and we tell you plainly if that's the case.
I had a lot of issues with my right leg due to poor mechanics and after a couple of months of working with Scott my knee pain is completely gone! I highly recommend him to anyone! Especially if you have chronic pain, a lot of the time it's due to lack of mobility and poor mechanics.
How We Treat It
Once we know what we're treating, your plan can include manual therapy such as joint mobilization or Graston, therapeutic exercise targeted at the specific weakness or restriction we found, and a home program you do between visits. We re-measure your strength and movement against your original numbers as you progress.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Do I need surgery for knee pain?
Not always. Surgery gets recommended in this valley for knee problems that conservative care resolves. Testing tells us whether your case is one of them, and if it isn't, we say so and make the referral.
- How long does knee pain take to resolve?
That depends on what the evaluation finds. You leave your first visit with a plan of care that includes an expected duration, so you're not guessing.
- What if I've already tried physical therapy for my knee?
Tell us what you've already tried. A lot of what we see is a previous plan that never got re-measured against results. We start by testing what your knee is actually doing now.
Know What's Wrong and What's Next
No guessing, no generic exercise sheet. Just a measured answer and a plan with your name on it.