What is Joint Instability?

As you may recall, a joint is made up of 4 main structures. Tendons, Ligaments, Bones and Cartilage. The Ligaments play a huge role in keeping the joint nice and stable. Sometimes, as the result of an injury, overuse (repetitive strain on those ligaments) or simply because of heredity, the ligaments may become loose and unable to keep the joint together properly. This leads to a problem we call joint instability.

What are the symptoms of Joint Instability?

The name joint instability should be quite self-explaintory. If you suffer from instability, you may notice that you may not be able to put much weight on that joint (in the case of ankle or knee instablity), you may experience pain and difficulity moving that joint and the joint may become dislocated often. If the joint becomes dislocated, you will notice that it looks abnormal, because the bones of the joint are not in their proper places.

How Does Joint Instability Cause Problems?

The biggest problems with joint instability are pain and the inability to rely on that joint. If you have a joint that becomes dislocated often, you may find that you restrict yourself from doing many activities you love to keep dislocation from occuring. Also, this condition can get very expensive and annoying if you have to visit a doctor each time a joint is dislocated.

How is Joint Instability treated?

Most mild cases of instability can be treated with a good physical therapy program that focuses on strengthening the muscles surrounding the specific joint. For the most effective treatment, you should seek a professional physical therapist that can show you the proper exercises and proper methods of performing these exercises. In other cases, surgery may be recommended to tighten the ligaments in the problem joint. Tightening of the ligaments will help to restabalize the joint and bring it back to almost (if not completely) full functionality. After surgery it's highly recommended that you take part in a physical therapy program to strengthen the muscles of the joint in the proper manner so they will support and not strain the joint.