Sprained ankles are a very common problem in sports and life in general — things happen. When you sprain your ankle, there is damage to the ligaments that surround the ankle. It is very important to get that diagnosed accurately. Sometimes ankle sprains are misdiagnosed, or they are undervalued in how much of a problem that can cause down the road. You can end up with weakness in the ankles and instability, and it can be easier to sprain your ankle if weakness occurs.
One of the things that we do is we accurately diagnose the problem — the source of your pain — which ligament is involved and provide a comprehensive treatment plan to minimize the immediate damage. But we also provide long-term care to avoid any complications that can occur down the road. Sometimes that is surgical, but most of the time we can take care of that in a conservative way in the office with various techniques. It just depends on how severe the injury was.