Services Offered by Optimal Performance PT
At Optimal Performance Physical Therapy, we strive to provide a fun unique environment for our patients. We believe that recovery should be a collaborative effort between our experienced team and our patients. Our team of licensed physical therapists has decades worth of experience in treating a wide range of physical injuries and conditions. We offer personalized treatment plans tailored to meet the specific needs of each patient. Whether you’re recovering from a sports injury, surgery, or managing a chronic condition, our team is here to help. Our goal is to ensure you achieve your goals and get back to living life to the fullest.
Pediatric Physical Therapy
Children may require physical therapy to address gross motor delay due to many different diagnoses, such as prematurity, cerebral palsy, genetic syndromes, or musculoskeletal abnormalities. Children that are not demonstrating age-appropriate gross motor skills, such as crawling, walking, or are having difficulty with balance and coordination, can greatly benefit from treatment by a physical therapist.
Some of the Most Common Conditions Treated Include:
Foot & Ankle Pain
If you have ever experienced plantar fasciitis or achilles tendonitis, you know the pain can be debilitating and affect your quality of life. Physical therapists have an arsenal of tools in our toolbox to help with many types of foot and ankle pain. Did you know that sometimes it can even start from your hip? At Optimal Performance, we truly strive to do whatever we can to help you get better.
Pre & Post-Surgical Rehabilitation /Joint Replacement
We follow you through your surgery before and after the procedure by restoring strength, flexibility, balance, and mobility while helping to manage your pain as you regain your functional independence.
Orthopedic & Sports Physical Therapy
Whether you have a sports or daily living injury, or an overuse injury such as tendonitis, an evaluation is performed and a personalized rehab plan is put into place. We utilize tools such as dry needling and instrument assisted soft tissue message along with specific exercises to help you get back in the game or back to work.
Back & Neck Rehabilitation
Back and neck pain is estimated to affect 50-80% of people at some point in their life which means a large portion of the patients we see are coming for neck or low back pain. Multiple structures in the spine can cause problems to arise which is why these conditions need to be evaluated by a Physical Therapist using movement and structural analysis. Age related arthritic changes are a big player in neck and low back pain as well. Our evaluation will give us the information we need to help treat your pain and improve overall spinal mobility and stability along with the goal of decreasing the need for or elimination of pain medication. A hands on approach using manual therapy and manipulation, soft tissue massage and dry needling is also a big component of our treatment.
Sciatic Pain
Sciatic pain is a part of low back /lumbar rehabilitation. Patients with a diagnosis of sciatica can have pain in the low back, and in one or both hips and frequently radiating down the affected side leg. Sciatica symptoms can be connected to a disc herniation in the lower back which can cause similar symptoms that may warrant the need for additional diagnostic testing. Symptoms of true sciatica can be greatly improved with specific exercises and similar hands on approaches used with low back pain.
TMJ
TMJ dysfunction is characterized by pain and difficulty with movement. For some, the joint doesn’t allow the normal opening of the mouth, for others, the joint can get stuck and all movements become painful. It is also common for the muscles surrounding the joint to be come stiff and sore. It can sometimes cause headaches and tension in the neck. Physical therapy uses a combination of modalities, manual therapy and exercise to alleviate these symptoms and improve joint mechanics.
Shoulder, Elbow, Wrist & Hand Pain
These joints of the body are prone to injury due to overuse, falls ,and sports. Patients with Shoulder pain are another big population that Physical Therapists see. Tendons, especially in the shoulder, are prone to tendonitis and in worst cases, tears. Pain on the outside of the elbow (tennis elbow) is another common site for pain that disrupts everyday activities. With the use of joint mobility treatments, dry needling, stretching, and strengthening injured muscles, Physical Therapists can help improve or alleviate symptoms in all of these areas and teach patients how to potentially avoid pain in the future.
Hip, Knee, Ankle & Foot Pain
As with the arm, this part of the body is frequently injured and is prone to degenerative joint changes like those seen in the neck and low back. Sprains, strains, and ligament tears are also very common here. Plantar fasciitis is another common diagnosis seen in Physical Therapy. Whether due to an injury, degenerative arthritis or overuse tendon issues, the evaluation process identifies the parts that are causing the problem and a treatment plan is initiated using all the tools and techniques implemented in other areas of the body.
Arthritis
Arthritis is a commonly used word for pain that becomes more common as we age. Stiff, achy joints make it painful to live an active lifestyle. Typically, this diagnosis is given to 50+ year old patients that have pain in the neck, low back, shoulders, hips and knees with no recent history of an injury or those that have a past traumatic injury. In most cases, if joint replacement surgery is not indicated (I.e. the shoulders, hips and knees), Physical Therapy can help restore general flexibility and mobility, strength, and endurance. With this condition, staying active and moving in a safe manner is the best way to help manage this condition. Following a detailed history of your symptoms and their behavior, we can initiate a plan of care that fits you and your goals so that this problematic diagnosis doesn’t slow you down.
Vestibular Rehabilitation
The vestibular system gives our brains vital information about how we move and how our heads are positioned. It’s also involved with motor functions controlling our overall balance, stability, and posture. Vestibular rehab is a process of adaptation and compensation to reprogram or reset the connections with the brain to restore balance and stability.
Fall Prevention
Falls, especially in older populations, happen frequently and can be caused by a number of factors. Falls can cause significant injuries. Whether they happen due to weakness in the legs, neurological conditions, or vestibular disorders, Physical Therapy can help improve overall strength while also incorporating balance re-education and vestibular exercises that help train the body to react more efficiently to changes in the environment (i.e.walking on unsteady surfaces) that will help improve balance and reduce the potential for falling.
Headaches & Migraines
Headaches, whether they derive from stress, tension, or other factors, are usually treated with medication. Physical Therapy is typically a much overlooked treatment option for this condition. Evaluating headaches involves postural assessments, neck mobility evaluations, and historical patterns of the headache. With true migraines, medication is an important part of treatment. However, in some cases, headaches can be treated without medication using manual therapy, dry needling, posture re-education, and instruction on exercises to perform at home that will help manage the onsets and frequency of these nagging headaches.
Manual Therapy Including Manipulation
Manual therapy and manipulation are a valuable tool that we use to help pain, improve mobility, and fix acute onsets of pain that can happen when we swing a golf club, sleep wrongly, or turn/twist our bodies in a way that creates sharp, acute pain. These techniques include stretching a joint in a way that puts it back in its correct, anatomical position. Widely used for treatment of neck, mid back, and low back pain, these techniques are used to treat multiple joint issues that can occur in the hip, arm, leg, ankle and foot. This treatment method also involves using instruments that aid in treating muscles, ligaments, and soft tissue disorders by helping injured areas heal.
Dry Needling
Dry needling is a treatment that uses thin needles inserted into the target area to stimulate tissue healing and decrease pain. It is usually used in conjunction with electrical stimulation that further aids in pain modulation. The most common conditions treated using this technique are headaches, upper back pain, TMJ, shoulder pain, tennis elbow, carpal tunnel syndrome, low back pain and sciatica, hip pain, bursitis, knee arthritis, achilles tendonitis, and plantar fasciitis. While these are the most common areas for which dry needling is used, it can also be used to treat trigger point pain that can occur in various parts of the body.