Castro Valley Chiropractic, Diagnose and Treat Tennis Elbow

Tennis elbow is a debilitating condition suffered mostly by tennis players but anyone can suffer from this due to repetitive motion that affects the outer part of the elbow. Tennis elbow is the opposite of golfer’s elbow. Tennis elbow is lateral epicondylitis while the golfer’s elbow is medial epicondylitis. Both are quite painful and affect lots of people who perform repetitive actions. The Castro Valley Chiropractic professional knows how to properly diagnose the problem of the patient and s/he knows if the patient suffers from tennis elbow and not golfer’s elbow.

For proper diagnosis, tests may be conducted as well as physical examination. X-rays may also be required by the chiropractor to see if there’s no broken bone that may cause the pain and discomfort. With regards to the physical examination, the chiropractor would press on the tendon that connects the lateral elbow to the upper arm and bone. By doing this, if the patient indeed suffers from tennis elbow then s/he would feel pain and some tenderness on that area. Another examination is by extending the wrist. If the patient reacts with pain then it is probably tennis elbow.

As for treatment, the Castro Valley chiropractic health professionals would want to treat the patient so the pain and swelling would be relieved. Your Castro Valley chiropractor can use electric stimulation, ultrasound, moist heat, cold laser therapy, chiropractic rehabilitation and the use of splint on top of other treatments that your preferred chiropractic is more comfortable with. The patient needs to rest from the activity that cause the problem. Proper rehabilitation is also necessary before the patient can go back and perform the sport or activity again without the risk of worsening the injury. If this treatment wouldn’t work then the last resort option would be surgery.

The Castro Valley chiropractic professionals don’t like to use pain relief medicines and do not recommend surgery unless no other means of treatment is available. Going for the noninvasive treatment option is still the best and preferred method before considering invasive options such as surgery. In fact, only about 5% of patients suffering from tennis elbow require surgery.

There are 3 phases in the rehabilitation of tennis elbow. The first phase is done when the injury had occurred. The goal is to lessen the pain and swelling by following the RICE method- Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation. The 2^nd phase is to improve the strength by stretching and strengthening exercises. Once the strength of the elbow had been returned to normal and the full range of motion is already reached then that’s the time you can move forward with the 3^rd phase which is the gradual return of activity. The Castro Valley chiropractic professional would assist you throw all the 3 phases so you can go back into shape as soon as possible.

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