What is a sports medicine physician and how is that doctor’s training different from other doctors? Dr. Bennett answers that question in this video. In this article, he explains what a sports medicine physician does and factors to consider in evaluating the training of a sports medicine specialist.
Dr. J. Michael Bennett is a Board Certified Orthopedic Surgeon and is Fellowship Trained in Sports Medicine. Doctor Bennett specializes in treating issues of the shoulders, elbows, knees, and some hands and wrist injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome.
Doctor J. Michael Bennett recorded this video to provide an overview of what a sports medicine physician does for patients and specifically, what an orthopedic surgeon certified in sports medicine can do. We accept Aetna, Cigna, United Healthcare and most other medical insurance plans, and we serve patients from the Metro Houston area through offices in Sugar Land and Downtown Houston, TX. Please call us a 281-633-8600 to make an appointment at the Sugar Land office and 713-234-3152 for an appointment at the office near the Houston Galleria.
A sports medicine physician primarily focuses on the surgical options and the practice of surgical options for athletes and active individuals such as the weekend warrior, the elite athlete, or the high school athlete – individuals who have had ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) tears, Achilles tears, rotator cuff tears, or shoulder dislocations. We have had extensive training in arthroscopic surgery and we’re usually able to use minimally invasive arthroscopic techniques, which entail using a few poke holes around the joint. We also have training in all different ways of doing anterior cruciate ligament surgery using donor grafts versus auto-grafts and the different options. We are also well versed in the open versus arthroscopic options in all areas treatment of the shoulders, elbows and knees.
We have extensive learning and training in cartilage resurfacing as well as cartilage transfers and cartilage transplant and we are very adept to some of the cutting edge technologies involved in sports medicine, joint preservation and tendon regeneration.
Now to be CAQ certified, which means a Certificate of Added Qualification in sports medicine, you have to do a certain number of arthroscopic sports cases within a year and you have to take a written test in addition to obtaining a number of recommendations from fellow peer surgeons within the community. It’s another test to maintain your sub-specialty certification within sports medicine. I’m CAQ Certified in Sports Medicine.
If you’re looking for a physician, if you just want to find a general orthopedist, you want to find one that’s board eligible and board certified. If you are looking for a sub-specialist, particularly in sports medicine, you want to make sure that surgeon is also board certified or board eligible, you want to make sure that surgeon also has their CAQ, and that he or she does practice both arthroscopic and open procedures on their patients.
When looking for a sports medicine physician you have to ask yourself, “What is my main problem?” Is it your spine? Is it arthritis? Is it a torn ACL? Is it a shoulder problem? And then you have to research the surgeon you are thinking about visiting. And like I mentioned before, the key things you want to look for are the board certification, the CAQ, their training and experience as well as any kind of recommendations they may have.
And you should never hesitate on obtaining a second opinion if there’s ever any question in regards to what your surgeon is telling you; you have that right. As we say in our office here: A hesitant patient is an uncomfortable patient. We want you to be very comfortable in the decisions you make, we want to make those decisions with you, and we want to go through your process step by step in making sure you are as confident and comfortable as possible during that process.
So if you have any questions regarding this, please feel free to contact my office. Once again I’m Doctor J. Michael Bennett. Thank you.
Call for an appointment at our Sugar Land clinic at 281-633-8600. For an appointment at our Houston Galleria area clinic, please call 713-234-3152. You can also make an appointment by clicking the button at the top of the page.
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