Non-surgical treatment options include everything from just resting the area. And so, the more rest you give anything it's gonna feel better, but humans are active, and we don't want to rest forever. And so, in order to keep yourself going, we usually recommend starting out with ice, elevation, all the typical RICE method modalities. Rest, ice, compression, elevation, that's the RICE method.
From there, usually, we advance to things like non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications, as long as you don't have any medical contraindications, such as a stomach ulcer or kidney disease. And that's usually something that the primary care physician will start with. And then, if that does not work and the disease process continues to get worse, then they talk about, usually, getting you over to an orthopedic surgeon for evaluation. That's where we'd come in.
When a patient is referred over to our office, the first thing we do is consider all conservative management options that are available to us, and this can include everything from placing you into a boot to help relieve the area for some time period. It could include orthotic management, which many of my patients, the reason they have their arthritic process is due to a malalignment of their joints such as a flat foot or a high arch. We will stand you up, we will evaluate that, and we will get you to the correct place to have a specific pair of orthotics made just for you. Other things that we try are cortisone injections and platelet-rich plasma injections, which are both done in our office, and that would be the place that we would start first.
