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Sports Medicine is a great topic to discuss for today’s athletes, young and old. Playing sports and enjoying other physical exercise is an important aspect of being a child, whether in Asheboro, NC, or anywhere else. Sports, both competitive and non-competitive sports, can provide young athletes with an opportunity to learn new skill sets, build fitness and confidence, acquire leadership skills, and most importantly, to have fun. As far back as the Greek civilization, sports medicine doctors recognized that physical activity encourages development in physical fitness, motor skills, social skills, a life-long appreciation for sport, and a healthy lifestyle.

Orthopedic surgeons and sports medicine doctors at Randolph Orthopedics and Sports Medicine concentrate on the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and aftercare of injuries and conditions resulting from taking part in a sport or other physical activity.They can help you understand how best to support your child if an injury occurs

Young athletes have special needs

Orthopedic surgeons and sports medicine doctors know that young athletes are not simply smaller versions ofthe athletes they admire in professional sports, although they may like to think they are.Bones, muscles, tendons, and ligaments are still growing all through adolescence, and until theirgrowth process is complete, young athletes are more susceptible than their adult counterparts to sport injury.

Chalk it up to youthful enthusiasm, but young athletes tend to throw themselves into activities they enjoy, or their peers enjoy, with extreme – and often rash – intensity. It is the responsibility of parents and coaches, and of involved sports medicine doctors, to help them avoid serious injury.

Growth plates

As the bones of young arms and legs grow, they elongate, adding new bone tissue to the ends. This growth happens in areas of soft cartilage known as growth plates. These growth plates, until they ossify into bone at maturity, are weaker than surrounding bones, tendons and ligaments. Sports medicine doctors know that athletes who are still growing can be injured very seriously. This means that an injury which might cause only minor injury to an adult, could lead to a broken bone in the growth plate area of a child, and a trip to the orthopedic surgeon. True, children and adolescents heal faster than their adult heroes do, but some types of injuries can negatively affect proper growth and development unless promptly and properly treated. Broken or damaged growth plates could cause the affected bone to stop growing, to grow shorter than matching bones, to be bent, bowed, or otherwise malformed. Treatment and rehabilitation under the care of an experienced orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine doctor is vital to the future well-being of a child who suffers a growth plate injury.

Training and conditioning important to youth athletes

Sports medicine doctors can help parents and coaches make sure their young athletes are fit and healthy, before they head for the field or court. We should not expect that simply playing the sport will get children or adolescents into shape, especially if they are unfit to begin with. An effective focus on training and conditioning begins with fitness and proper warm-up. Improved muscular strength, flexibility, cardio-respiratory fitness, and endurance must be the goal of any exercise or training regimen for young athletes. This is as important to young athletes as learning the rules of the game.

Parents and coaches need to be aware of, and watch for, early signs of injury. Among other indications, they include pain, a limp, favoring one limb over another, diminished range of motion, and a reluctance to take part in usual activities. While professional athletes are encouraged, and even expected, to “play through the pain,” children should never, ever, be encouraged to do so.

Parents and coaches need to make sure their young athletes understand and can describe the various types of pain: sharp or stabbing pain, dull ache, throbbing. They also should understand it is okay to say it hurts, without hesitation, and without feeling as if they are letting someone down.

The wellbeing of their patient, adult or child, is of utmost importance to sports medicine doctors. In treating professional athletes, sports medicine specialists constantly face the duality of the patient-performance conflict that is inherent in professional sports. Allowing the masking of pain in a child or adolescent with icing, local analgesics, or local anesthetics, however, can lead to a much more serious injury. Overuse of injured tissue can lead to fractures, muscle tears, damaged growth plates, or other chronic problems, which can seriously affect the future of a young person.

R.I.C.E.

No matter how well trained or conditioned, no matter how well coached or how skilled, when they take part in sport, especially a contact sport, young athletes are prone to injury. Acute injuries (sprains, fractures, tears) or chronic injuries (stress fractures, tendonitis) that last for more than 48 hours after applying R.I.C.E. (see below) should be diagnosed and treated by a sports medicine doctor or orthopedic doctor, to be sure proper treatment is prescribed and adequate follow-up is taken.

Prompt first aid treatment should adhere to the R.I.C.E protocol: Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation.  First, whatever activity is causing the pain, stop doing it. Applying an ice pack will help manage swelling and decrease pain. Compress the injured area with a wrapped elastic bandage to immobilize the injured area and further reduce swelling. Elevate the injured area to above the heart. Be sure to place pillows under the entire limb as support.

Contact your sports medicine doctors at Randolph Orthopedics and Sports Medicine in Asheboro, NC.They will work with you to help make sure your child’s health is protected and that his or her interest in sport activities develops into a life-long appreciation for sport, exercise, and a healthy lifestyle.