We’ve heard this question many times from our Los Angeles patients over the years. The simple truth is that your ankle pain can be caused by several different conditions, and depends a great deal on how you sustained injury in the first place.

Well over 20,000 ankle sprains occur daily, so ankle sprains are very common and you are definitely not alone if your ankle pain is caused by a sprain. However symptoms of sprains and symptoms of fractures are very similar. When examined by an inexperienced practitioner, fractures are sometimes misdiagnosed as sprains, which results in wrong course of treatment, worst injury, and a considerably extended recuperation period.

Although thousands of ankles are sprained and injured daily, your sprain or fracture is unmistakably unique. We can confidently say this from our 60 years of combined experience and countless examples of successful ankle treatment cases at our institute. We can also say that the best first step in treating your ankle injury is getting an accurate and early diagnosis from a well-experienced podiatrist or foot specialist.

While this may seem like common sense, we continue to be surprised: many patients choose to wait and take advantage of our free consultations days after their initial injury and well after their attempts at self-diagnosis and conservative home treatment have failed. This prolongs the discomfort, healing time, and complicates the recovery.

Ankle fractures and sprains have similar signs:

• Pain, often severe and difficult to bear
• Swelling and inflammation
• Bruising of the ankle
• Difficulty walking
• Difficulty putting weight on the injured foot

Although resting, icing, compressing, and elevating your foot may be a good start for treating a sprained ankle, it is not enough to treat a fracture, which to an inexperienced eye will look very much like a sprain. For example both sprains and fractures can exhibit these signs:

• Pain, often severe and difficult to bear
• Swelling and inflammation
• Bruising of the ankle and surrounding areas of the foot
• Difficulty in walking or putting weight on the injured ankle

If you have ankle pain we encourage you to contact our office at your early and arrange for a complimentary evaluation of your injury. You will be able to speak one-on-one with our specialist and tell him about your specific problem and what you believe to be the cause.

Although this may or may not apply to you, ankle injuries are generally caused by:

• Running, playing, or even walking on an uneven surface
• Rolling an ankle
• Landing awkwardly on a foot after a jump
• Forceful impact on the foot or ankle, for example when one soccer player steps on or slide-tackles another player
• Excessive rotation or twisting of the ankle
• Ankle pain can also develop due to less obvious causes that do not necessarily arise from acute injury.

For example ankle pain can be caused by:

• Inflamed tendon
• Arthritis of the ankle joint
• Inflammation of joint lining
• Development of scar tissue in the ankle after a sprain
• Fracture in one or more bones that make up the ankle joint
• Entrapment of a nerve that passes through the ankle

Because ankle fractures and severity of damage to the ankle joint are not always easy to identify visually, determining the cause of your ankle pain and the underlying condition may require an X-ray or imaging of your foot.

Whatever the cause or extent of your injury, with the help from one of our foot and ankle specialists you will be able to get a free one-on-one consultation, an accurate diagnosis, and an early start to treatment and recovery.Without thorough and complete rehabilitation, damaged ligament or muscles that stabilize and surround your ankle may remain weak, resulting in recurrent instability, making you more prone to additional ankle injuries and progressive damage to your foot.

Because basic mobility and active and fulfilling lifestyle depend on your healthy feet we encourage you to be proactive and practical in addressing your ankle pain. Take the first step to recovery today, and call us to schedule a complementary evaluation of your ankle injury.