The First Steps to Dealing With Hip Pain

If you’re like most people, you take pain-free hips for granted. You walk, jog, bend, stretch, and go about your daily routine without ever thinking of your hips and hip joints.

But if you start experiencing hip pain, which often originates in the hip joints, you go from taking your hips for granted to thinking about them almost constantly. Hip pain can interfere with nearly every part of your day and night. 

If you have hip pain — whether it’s chronic or acute — the sports medicine and primary care providers at Princeton Sports and Family Medicine, P.C. of Lawrenceville, New Jersey, can help. Our providers have extensive experience diagnosing and treating hip pain.

Relief from hip pain is within your reach. Here, our providers outline the steps we take to help you deal with your hip pain.

Step 1: Perform a thorough Hip Evaluation

When you come to our providers with hip pain, we perform a thorough hip evaluation to gather information about your pain.

We start by asking you about your pain, as well as your medical history, any drugs you take, the types of daily activities you do, your job, and other issues that could contribute to your pain.

Then, we perform a full comprehensive examination, checking your range of motion, pain levels, and other factors that may lead to your pain. 

Next, our providers perform any necessary testing to learn more about what’s causing your pain. Our team is pleased to be able to offer precision testing with a wide range of state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment, such as musculoskeletal ultrasound.

Step 2: Identify a Diagnosis

After gathering as much discovery information as possible, our team gives you a diagnosis. Some common causes of hip pain include:

Hip discomfort may result from issues with the hip's bones or cartilage, such as:

Hip fractures — might result in a sudden, acute hip discomfort. These injuries may be severe and cause enormous issues. These issues are more typical as people age since falling is more prevalent and as you age, your bones get weaker.

• The hip can develop osteonecrosis (necrosis from loss of blood supply to the bone).
• Arthritis is frequently felt in the groin or front of the leg.
• Hip labral tearing.
• Hip arthritis is preceded by femoral acetabular impingement, an abnormal development surrounding the hip. Exercises and movement might make it painful.

The following conditions can also result in hip pain:

• Bursitis causes discomfort when moving, walking, climbing stairs, and driving
• Hamstring ache
• Iliotibial Band Syndrome
• Hip Flexor injury
• Impingement of the hip
• Strained Groin
• Hip-snapping Syndrome

Hip pain that you experience can be caused more by a back issue than by the hip itself.

Step 3: Create a Customized Treatment Plan

After determining the cause of your pain, your provider recommends a personalized treatment plan.

People sometimes put off seeing a care provider for hip pain because they believe that prescription painkillers or surgery are their only treatment options. However, our practice offers a full range of natural and whole-body treatment options that can provide hip pain relief without drugs or surgery.

For example, physical therapy (PT) offers many people significant relief from hip pain. In addition to pain relief, PT can offer natural healing while increasing your strength, expanding your flexibility, and improving your functionality.

Find Relief for Your Hip Pain

Our providers understand the toll hip pain can take on your quality of life. They work with you to identify a treatment plan that will offer you the greatest possible relief so you can feel better and get back to doing the activities you enjoy.

To schedule an appointment for a hip pain evaluation, call our office at (609) 248-6520 or request an appointment online.