Knee Pain

The Examination Process

There are many different structures and tissues in and around the knee joint that can contribute to knee pain.  Therefore, your solution starts with an examination to identify what is not working correctly and how to properly fix your problem.  During your exam, you will experience many orthopedic tests to isolate and evaluate the integrity of the ligaments, tendons, fascia, cartilage, meniscus, patella bone, femur bone, tibia bone, fibula bone, and the alignment of your lumbar spine (low back) and lumbar spinal discs.

In addition, during your exam Dr. Lynch will look for the following common knee injuries:

• ACL Injuries – Tearing of one of the ligaments that connect the bones in your leg, a common injury for football, basketball, and soccer players.
• Fractures –  Breaking of the knee bones, caused by falls or impacts to your knee.
• Torn Meniscus – Cartilage (meniscus) around the knee tears from sudden twisting.
• Tendinitis –  Tendons surrounding the kneecap become irritated and inflamed.  This is common in runners, skiers and cyclists.
• Bursitis – Any type of injury that causes inflammation in the bursae (sacs of cushioning fluid) around the knee.

The following are even more mechanical problems Dr. Lynch tests for during your exam so he can make his best recommendations for your knee pain relief treatment:

• Scar Tissue – The covering on the outside of the muscles is a glycoprotein (sugar protein) called fascia.  Over time these glycoproteins break down and stick together or adhere.  These adhesions are what create scar tissue which painfully limits range of motion.
• Slipped, Bulging or Herniated Discs in Your Lower Back –  Any of these conditions can negatively affect the nerves that activate and move the muscles in your legs and contribute to your knee pain.
• Muscles –  If the Popliteus, adductors, TFL or PSOAS muscle(s) are weak, strained or extremely tight, you can get a lot of cartilage pain.
• Must check for a problem with the Infrapatellar Tendon.

Knee Anatomy

Here’s a basic breakdown of the parts of your body that affect your knee health in close proximity:

• Ligaments attach bone to bone.
• Tendons attach muscles to bone.
• Fascia covers individual muscle bundles allowing them to slip and slide upon each other.
• Articular cartilage covers the ends of each bone and the back of the kneecap. This smooth cartilage allows the bones to move easily within the joint and slide over each other without friction.
• Meniscus cartilage is the cartilage that forms a shock absorber between the bones of the knee.

The four bones that make up the knee include:

• Patella is the small bone in front of the knee called your knee cap.
• Femur is your thigh bone.
• Tibia is the front bone of your lower leg or shin.
• Fibula runs along outside of the Tibia below the knee joint.

Is Your Back Causing Your Knee Pain?  Has Anyone Looked?

When determining the cause of knee pain, it’s important to address any problems with your lumbar spine.

You see, your knee joint, just like your elbows, wrists and other joints within the body are part of your muscular skeletal system.  Therefore, if your lumbar spine is out of alignment and pinching nerves that work muscles that support your knee, or if you have a spinal disc out of alignment at L3 or L5 in your lumbar spine, you can have weakness and pain in the muscle in front of your shin or within your quadricep.  These weaknesses can contribute to knee problems.

We can eliminate pinched nerves and slipped and bulging spinal discs with gentle and specific chiropractic alignments by using a hand-held instrument that gently glides along the spine and bumps the discs into their proper alignments.  This will strengthen the muscles around your knees.

Popliteus Muscle – An Often Overlooked Contributor to Knee Pain

A very common condition that often contributes to knee pain is a problem with the Popliteus muscle.  This muscle stretches across the back of the knee and is a major stabilizing muscle for the knee.  When the popliteus muscle is overtightened, the knee joint cannot unlock the way it’s designed to.  It can create decreased range of motion and discomfort in and around the knee.

At Lynch Chiropractic we have a wonderful tool called the percussor that can help release the overtightened Popliteus Muscle to restore motion to the knee joint and eliminate pain.  The percussor instrument is also great at releasing scar tissue around the knee as well.  Most patients say the treatment feels great.

All treatment at Lynch Chiropractic and Chronic Pain Solutions is designed to fix the damaged tissue and to restore proper function to the knee for long-lasting pain relief.

The Erchonia FX 405 – Helps To Deliver Outstanding Clinic Outcomes

One really important tool we use to help people eliminate their knee pain is the Erchonia FX405 Low Level Laser Therapy (LLLT) aka photo biomodulation.  The FX405 can quickly and dramatically reduce pain by:

• Reducing Inflammation
• Enhancing Tissue Repair
• Improving Blood Flow to bring oxygen, nutrients to the area for healing as well as flushing out the debris for faster repair
• Reducing Free Radical Production and Oxidative Stress
• Improving Cellular Energy Production to give the cells the energy they need to build and repair
• Strengthen the nerves that exit the spine to activate weakened muscles to return them to strength and reduce and eliminate pain.

Been Told It’s Bone on Bone?

Many patients tell us they have been told the knee pain they feel when lying down and trying to sleep is bone on bone pain.  To clarify, bone on bone pain increases while you stand and put weight upon the joint.  Bone on bone pain should decrease when you take the weight off from it.  If the pain increases when you are not bearing weight on it, then the pain you are feeling probably doesn’t have anything to do with your knee joint.

Is It Osteoarthritis?

Many people believe surgery is their only way to relieve knee pain.  Unfortunately, surgery creates scar tissue, includes a high risk of infection, doesn’t always eliminate pain, and knee replacements wear out over time.  We’ve helped a lot of patients eliminate their knee pain who already had a knee replacement.

Our Goals to Treat Your Chronic Knee Pain

At Lynch Chiropractic and Chronic Pain Solutions we find the cause of your knee pain, fix it fast and effectively with no down time. No drugs.  No surgery.  Zero negative side effects.

Our knee pain treatment has three primary goals:

1. Eliminate your pain.
2. Stimulate the soft and hard tissue of your knee so it will start to regenerate and heal.
3. Restore function to your knee so it’s moving properly and does not continue to break down.