When most people think about their joints, their minds go to the highly visible ones like the knees or the joints in the hands. While your hip joints might not get as much attention, they play a huge role. In fact, they matter not just for your mobility, but for your ability to sit and rest comfortably, too. If you have hip pain, you already know that to be true.
Hip pain can be so pervasive that it feels like it’s taking over your life. That’s why Dr. Jonathan D. Carlson offers dedicated hip pain treatment here at Hawai’i Pain and Spine on the Windward side of Oʻahu in Kailua.
To create an effective hip pain treatment plan for you, he starts by figuring out what’s causing your discomfort. Dr. Carlson has diagnostic tools like X-rays and computed tomography (CT) scans to aid that process, but since you know your own symptoms so well, you may be able to help point him in the right direction.
With that in mind, let’s look at 10 of the leading causes of hip pain.
You may be diagnosed with arthritis when you have an inflamed joint. Different types of arthritis cause a variety of joint problems and different kinds of pain, so Dr. Carlson works with you to identify the type of arthritis affecting you.
Osteoarthritis, which develops as a result of wear and tear on your joints, is a leading cause of hip pain.
Another inflammation-based issue, bursitis occurs when the small fluid-filled sacs (bursae) that cushion your hip become inflamed. This causes achiness, swelling, stiffness, and other symptoms.
Each hip relies on a ball-and-socket joint. While this joint type gives you a wide range of motion, it’s also easier to dislocate than other joint types. Many people have hip pain because their joint is dislocated.
A fracture in any of the bones that supports your hip can cause ongoing discomfort. Most hip fractures develop as a result of a fall. Your risk for this type of injury goes up as you get older.
Your hip has a ring of cartilage called the labrum that stabilizes the ball-and-socket joint. Overuse and injuries can tear this cartilage, resulting in loss of mobility, pain, a clicking sound, and other symptoms.
Inflammation can be blamed for yet another common cause of hip pain: tendinitis. In this case, the tendons of your hip flexors become inflamed, usually because of overuse.
If something is putting too much pressure on a specific nerve, you’ll usually get pain accompanied by other symptoms like tingling or numbness. Inflammation from another part of your hip can pinch a nerve, making your hip pain worse.
Speaking of pinched nerves, the sciatic nerve is a common hip pain source. When this nerve, which branches from your lower back down each leg, is put under pressure, it can cause shooting pain in your hip and down the affected leg. Medical experts call this sciatica.
Also called osteonecrosis, the condition develops when some of your bone tissue dies because it isn’t getting enough blood.
With synovitis, inflammation is back at it, this time affecting the connective tissue (synovium) that lines your joints.
Clearly, a lot of issues can cause hip pain. Fortunately, Dr. Carlson can identify the cause of the pain and develop a targeted treatment plan. He might recommend anti-inflammatory medication and/or injections if inflammation causes your hip pain, for example.
To get started on the path toward less hip pain, call our office to schedule your appointment today.
