New Treatments Helping To ‘raise The Barre’ For People Who Love To Dance – But Who Don’t Want Their Aches And Pains To Trip Them Up

Trinity loves working closely with the marketing team at Contura Orthopeadics Ltd, creating media relations campaigns and developing patient-focused content to highlight the benefits of hydrogel, specifically the novel and pioneering, non-invasive treatment for the pain and discomfort caused by knee osteoarthritis, Arthrosamid®

Osteoarthritis affects around 8.5 million people in the UK and can cause pain and problems with normal knee function, which has a detrimental effect on quality of life – particularly for those with a passion for pastimes such as golf, skiing, walking, football, and dance.

So, ahead of this year’s International Dance Day (29th April), we spoke to a leading orthopaedic surgeon, to discuss some ‘on pointe’ tips about how dancers (whether professional or just for pleasure) can avoid injury as well as coping with the discomfort caused by ‘wear and tear’.

Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, Mr Andrew Pearse, based at the SO Knee Clinic in Worcestershire told us; “Despite the seemingly gentle nature of dance, chronic injury and pain is very common in dancers. There is also risk of  acute pain, particularly after long hours of rehearsals which often require endless repetition of movements.

“Injuries in dancers tend occur in the lower body, such as the waist, hips, feet, ankles and toes – but often, the knees really do bear the brunt. And, unfortunately the recovery time for knee injuries in dancers can be lengthy.

“As ever, prevention is always better than cure and whilst some injuries will be accidental and unavoidable, simple steps can really help to keep dancers jumping for joy!”:

• Working on correct technique is vital in helping to protect your joints – practicing in front of a mirror, observing and recording yourself to avoid any ‘bad movements’ can help to prevent injury
• Try not to train when feeling fatigued – that’s when accidents happen
• Always stretch out and warm up before beginning a dance session
• Work on muscle strengthening – if you start to notice a lack of strength when performing certain movements, you should work on weight-bearing exercises to help develop those muscles
• Strengthen your core to improve your stability
• Functional taping /bandages around any known weakness in joints can help to limit painful movement and reduce instability
• Sprung flooring reduces pressure on the ankle and knee joints.
• Take regular breaks and avoid overtraining.

“Overall, always listen to your body. Whether you dance professionally, or simply dance for pure pleasure, it can bring great benefits to your general fitness levels and state of mind and I believe people should be encouraged to keep dancing for as long they can. However, one wrong turn can leave you sore and strapped up for months so always limber up before hitting the dance floor.

“And do seek help and advice if chronic pain is stopping you from enjoying any form of dance as there really are many options to keep you on your feet, from a combination of physio and exercise programmes to injections (including steroid and hyaluronic acid / lubricant) injections) and novel and non-invasive treatments using hydrogel to cushion the knee joint, reduce the patient’s pain, decrease stiffness and help movement.”

As part of our ongoing medical education and patient awareness programme,  it was great to see the topical content picked up in consumer media, including The Hippocratic Post, Chat magazine and People’s Friend magazine featuring one of our inspiring and fab-u-lous patient case studies.

Keep dancing……