Constant hip, back, or feet pain? A bone length study by chiroFX could answer your questions.

joint pain, bone length study

A bone length study by chiroFX, Austin’s most trusted chiropractic clinic, can help you identify and diagnose foundational issues that may be contributing to your joint pains.

Bone Length Study, leg length discrepancy, joint pain

A bone length study by chiroFX identifies fundamental issues for joint pain. This form of examination is the simple measurement of your lower limbs through X-ray imagery. The implications of such, however, are not as simple. It may answer some of the ailments you’re experiencing whether it be hip pain, knee pain, back pain, or feet pain!

The examination, administered by Dr. Minors who has over twenty years of being a musculoskeletal expert, is done in-house and takes no longer than 20 minutes!

Uncover fundamental issues in your skeletal structure that may be causing your hip, knee, or feet pain.

Imagine a skyscraper 1,000 feet in the sky, except the northwest corner is 12 inches shorter than the rest. What do you imagine would happen in one month? Likely, not much. But after five years? Ten? In reality, the building would never be allowed to be built in the first place!

So why are we okay with this being the case for our bodies? This 12-inch difference in the analogy is representative of a 0.001% discrepancy. However, the average leg length discrepancy is actually 0.003%: THREE TIMES that amount. Up to 90% of the US population suffer from this. (Murray and Azari, 2015)

Up to 90% of the US population suffer from a leg length discrepancy.

Where uneven bone lengths can cause joint pain.

0.003% bone length discrepancy in a 5’4” person is roughly 4.9mm, or 5.5mm in a 6’ person. At chiroFX, it is extremely common for us to see bone length discrepancies of 3 to 5mm of unsuspecting patients. It is also not uncommon for us to observe a leg length discrepancy of 8mm and above.

Just like a building, these bone length discrepancies can occur at the ground level (bones that make up your ankle); at the 10th floor (bones that make up your calf or knee); or at the 35th floor (the bones that make up your thigh or hip)!

Functioning at uneven bone lengths compounds the issue at every “floor” and the longer it is left unaddressed, the harder it is to fix the problem. More often than not, bone length discrepancies are a contributing source of chronic lower limb pains: including hip pain, knee pain, back pain, or feet pain.

X-ray bone length study is invaluable because there is simply no replacement for it. There is simply no other way to properly diagnose a leg length discrepancy other than an X-ray bone length study, and substitutions are dangerous. Some podiatrists will have the patient lay on their back and visually gauge the discrepancy.

This form of examination is extremely inaccurate and unreliable – we have had several patients that have had exceedingly incorrect shoe lifts prescribed to them due to this form of examination.

If you or a loved one has received a shoe lift and have not experienced relief, please call chiroFX @ 512-480-9999 and schedule a consultation with Dr. Minors. 

Accurate and early diagnosis of bone length discrepancies is crucial because the effects can be left unseen and unfelt for the majority of your life while the damage is slowly compounding. The body itself is extremely good at adapting to deficiencies, and your tendons, ligaments and muscles will accommodate the musculoskeletal discrepancy – but at a cost. Eventually, these adaptations can lead to osteoarthritis. Murray and Azari showed in 2015 that leg length discrepancies causes uneven and excessive loading “of not only knee joints but also hip joints and lumbar motion segments,” which is a huge risk factor for osteoarthritis.

Effects can be left unseen and unfelt for the majority of your life while the damage is slowly compounding. A bone length study by chiroFX can help uncover the exact state of your body.

Common pains associated with osteoarthritis are chronic joint pain, such as knee pain, hip pain, lower back pain, or lumbar spine pain. Chronic pain is generally indicative of long-term degeneration of your body’s musculoskeletal structure! So, the team at chiroFX highly encourage you to take action to uncover the EXACT state of your body. Let us and Dr. Minors’ experience of over twenty years to empower you with the knowledge of your own body. Schedule your consultation today!

If you are an athlete, the effects of uneven bone lengths are AMPLIFIED. Let us help keep you at your tip top game!

When you are an athlete, both casual and professional, you know you are using your body at a more extreme rate than the average populace! Naturally, this means the uneven joint loading is further exacerbated. Let us help you keep you at your tip top game! Properly addressing leg length discrepancy can lower risk of injury and increase longevity of your performance.

References:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4593034/

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