Tens of thousands of Americans sprain their ankles every day, and the vast majority simply try to walk (or hobble) it off. While it’s true that ankle sprains may not require as much immediate attention as a compound fracture or a heart attack, you shouldn’t just try to ignore the injury and hope that it feels better in a few days. Symptoms do tend to improve a little as your body works to heal the damage, but without proactive treatment, there’s an increased risk that there will be more sprains in your future.
In today’s blog, we talk about the right treatment plan to prevent a singular ankle sprain from turning into a chronic instability issue.
Preventing Ankle Instability After A Sprain
All ankle injuries will vary in severity and how the supportive ligaments are damaged, so we typically recommend that you seek out a foot and ankle specialist for best treatment results. With that said, oftentimes you can successfully navigate mild to moderate ankle sprains on your own by pursuing some proactive advice. Here’s a good general course of treatment to help your ankle ligaments get back to a pre-injury level of fitness.
1. Short-Term Rest/Activity Avoidance – Don’t just keep powering through with your day as if nothing has happened. Continuing to stress your ankle joint and the supportive ankle ligaments while they are in a weakened state can lead to worsening damage. There will be a time to put stress on your ankles and work to restrengthen them, but the first 24-48 hours after a sprain is not that time. Try to avoid any heavy impact activities and protect your ankle for a day or two right after the injury.
2. Swelling Prevention – Your body goes into protection mode after a sprain, and this will lead to swelling and localized inflammation. Inflammation is your body’s way to trying to protect itself against further damage, but if you’re already taking proactive care steps, inflammation can actually end up slowing down the healing process by delaying how quickly blood can flow to and from the injury site. Work to prevent excessive swelling and bruising with cold packs and by elevating your leg to help fluid drain back towards your heart. Again, this will be most effective in the first 24-48 hours after initial injury.
3. Physical Therapy – While this is the third point on this list, this will arguably be the most important aspect if you want to get back to a pre-injury level of fitness, and you may even find that your ankle is actually stronger than it was prior to the injury after a targeted PT program. Physical therapy will have you safely take on more stress, which strengthens the affected muscles and ankle ligaments. PT will also serve to expand your comfortable range of motion and restore flexibility in the affected region. It may take weeks or even months of physical therapy, but when all is said and done, those injured ankle ligaments will be much more functional as a result. Rest alone will not get your ankle ligaments back to a pre-injury level of fitness.
4. Hands-On Care – Although we mentioned that ankle sprains can oftentimes be treated effectively at home, for best results or for assistance with tricky or severe sprains, connect with a foot and ankle specialist like Dr. Silverman. He will assess your ankle in person and with the help of imaging tests to see exactly what’s going on in your foot and how to best address the affected soft tissues. From there, he’ll cultivate an individualized recovery program tailored to your individual needs, and he’ll be a key resource throughout your entire recovery process. For athletes or anyone who absolutely needs to fully put their ankle sprain behind them, connecting with a professional can make all the difference.