Before we get to the causes and treatment for hip pain, let’s first confirm where your hip is!
Most people assume it is the sacroiliac joint, which is the joint connected by ligaments that support the spine. That’s incorrect. Set your sights towards the front of your leg instead. The hip joint is where the thigh bone (femur) connects with the pelvis. It is the ball-shaped bone that fits into the socket called the acetabulum in the pelvis that keeps it in place.
Hip pain can create an imbalance in the pelvic area that can lead to a wide variety of problems. You may feel pain in the entire region from outside your hips, upper thighs and outer buttocks to all around the hip joint. If left untreated, the pain can spread to your lower back.
Hip pain can be caused by arthritis, injuries, dislocation, hip fracture, sprains, pinched nerves, osteoporosis, osteomyelitis (bone infection) and even bone cancer or death of bone tissue from reduced blood flow (a condition commonly found in children called Avascular Necrosis).
Hip Pain Treatments
Never take hip pain lightly. If the pain doesn’t decrease after a week or two of taking painkillers, visit an established chiropractor to get it properly diagnosed and treated before it worsens. If you feel feverish or the pain worsens, interfering with your daily activities, it could be an infection.
Your chiropractor will use an x-ray of the pelvic girdle to look for misalignment and assess the reason behind the pain. Once identified, a customized treatment plan will be devised to correct the imbalance and improve function. Often, rebalancing resolves the issue.
Long-term hip pain could be caused by other conditions. If the pain radiates to other areas, such as the groin, in beyond your outer hips, buttocks or lower back, further tests may be required as an x-ray is not enough to assess at the conditions of the soft tissues around the joint. It is good to evaluate the condition of the bones only.
- CT Scans: A computerized tomography or CT scan uses x-rays to take a closer look at sections of the hip put together in a 3D format image.
- MRI Scans: Magnetic resonance imaging uses radio waves to create an image to see the condition of the soft tissue, muscles and tendons within the hip. It’s a great way to diagnose painful conditions like avascular necrosis, which is responsible for bone collapse due to restricted blood flow.
- Blood Tests: Blood tests can help determine the cause of pain from infections or rheumatoid arthritis.
Sometimes there are other causes behind hip pain, such as obesity, excessive stress, cysts or tumours, congenital hip abnormalities, severely degenerated hip joint, cartilage damage or muscular spasms. Only a professional, certified chiropractor can correctly diagnose and treat hip pain, and get you back on track.
Oshawa Chiropractic & Physiotherapy Wellness Centre
No matter what precautions you take or how careful you are, pain is hard to escape from and takes its own time to leave, despite strong medications. Don’t let it come back to haunt you over and over again.
Dr. Camastra is well known for her variety of natural healing services from chiropractic to physiotherapy, medical acupuncture to laser therapy to get you back on your feet without side effects that regular medications are known for. Call to schedule an appointment. No matter your age, our clinic in Oshawa is equipped to alleviate a wide variety of chronic pain in non-invasive ways.