Frequently Asked Questions
What is Physical Therapy?
Physical therapy is a medical, hands-on approach to relieving pain and restoring function without dependence on potentially harmful medication. Physical therapists are medical experts in musculoskeletal and neurological conditions and work closely with physicians. Our physical therapists evaluate your movement patterns, identify the cause of your pain, and work to eliminate it.
While every patient’s condition and pains are unique, your physical therapist will use a variety of hands-on techniques, exercises, and equipment to relieve pain quickly and teach you to restore and maintain your function at optimum levels. The overall goal is to restore pain-free mobility and function and to prevent the injury or pain from recurring.
Why is our office different?
There are a wide variety of Physical Therapy offices to choose from, which can make the decision challenging. What it comes down to is quality. First, a smaller office like Summit Physical Therapy, owned by a Physical Therapist, will often provide a better service than a large corporate-owned office with hundreds of locations. The small office is deeply invested in their patients and community. Second, they must offer the three most important factors. (1.) Education about your condition and how to fix it (2.) Manual Therapy such as Massage and mobilization to correct tissue imbalance. And (3.) Corrective exercises individualized to each patient.
Do you accept private pay patients?
Yes. For private pay patients an initial visit is $100 and a follow up is $80, and no prescription is required.
Do I need a prescription to start Physical Therapy?
No. In New York state you can see a Physical Therapist without a prescription. However, if you are using your insurance, there are some insurance plans that require a prescription. Call our office and we’ll check for you.
How long after an injury should I wait to get treatment?
In general, the longer you wait to get treatment, the longer time will take to fix the injury. Certain surgical procedures require a waiting period before starting Physical Therapy, but this may be the exception. Moving the tissues back into their pre-injury arrangement becomes harder the longer they have been in a distorted/injured state. Of course, newly injured tissues will be more sensitive to touch, but immediate treatment will help ensure a faster return to normal pain free activity.
How Many visits would I need to return to 100% normal condition?
This is always a tricky question, because it varies with every patient, every problem, and is dependent on a large number of factors. What I can say is that in general, pain and dysfunction that has been present for a long time will usually, but not always, take longer to fix than more recent & acute problems. It will often take 4-6 visits to begin to see strength changes, but range of motion and pain relief will start earlier. Surgical recovery often takes longer than our average of 10-14 visits for many conditions.
Do I need to be injured to have Physical Therapy?
Not at all! Just like many other things you can get a “check up” for, Physical Therapists can help find imbalances in strength and mobility to help create programs to keep your body healthy. We can also design strength and conditioning programs for all levels, from young athletes to fall prevention and muscle preservation for the aging population.
What happens during a typical Physical Therapy session?
During your session, a Physical Therapist will go through a range of assessments to check for imbalances, perform manual therapy (hands on massage etc. help to improve joint mobility and muscle tension), and go through specific exercises to help stabilize and strengthen. Sometimes pain-relieving modalities like heat/ice and Electrical Stimulation are used. As an integral part of the recovery process, we make sure to provide each of our patients’ homework exercises to work on in between their visits.
Why is Physical Therapy a good choice?
More than half of all Americans are suffering from pain. Whether it is acute pain or chronic pain, there is a growing body of evidence showing that pain in America is a widespread problem that commonly results in sick days from work, and can be a precursor to opioid use and dependency. However, many do not even know that Physical Therapists are well equipped to not only manage pain but also address its source in a risk free medication free manner.
Most forms of Physical Therapy treatment are covered by insurance, but the coverage will vary with each plan. Most states do not require patients to see their physicians before seeing a Physical Therapist (Direct Access). Most of the time all you have to do is ask your doctor if Physical Therapy is right for you.
