Hyaluronic Acid Isn't Just For Fillers: Here's How it Relieves Knee Arthritis Pain

Some days are better than others, but increasingly, every day has some degree of knee pain thanks to wear-and-tear and osteoarthritis (OA). And you’re tired of being, literally, hobbled by painful and achy knees.

Knee pain affects about 25% of adults in the United States, and we can confidently say that knee OA accounts for more than its fair share, so you’re certainly not alone in your search for relief.

And you’ve come to the right place. Our team at Revive Spine and Pain Center has a good deal of experience helping patients to regain pain-free movement in the face of knee OA through highly effective and nonsurgical treatments. 

One of our workhorses in this area are knee gel injections, which is also called viscosupplementation. Here's how this approach to knee OA works.

The power of hyaluronic acid

At the heart of viscosupplementation is hyaluronic acid (HA), which you might know from dermal fillers. Long before HA was smoothing out wrinkles, we were using it to reestablish lubrication inside arthritic knee joints.

HA is naturally found in your body, especially in your joints, eyes, and skin. This gooey substance has an amazing power to hold moisture — one-quarter of a teaspoon of HA can hold 1.5 gallons of water.

In the context of your joints, HA helps with critical lubrication, keeping your knees well-oiled and moving smoothly.

Arthritis and your joints

Knee gel injections are designed for people with knee OA. With this condition, the protective cartilage that covers the bony surfaces inside your joint(s) progressively wears down and breaks apart. 

As a result, there’s more friction inside your joint, which is what leads to the pain and inflammation that are the hallmarks of knee OA.

In addition to the cartilage loss, you also lose synovial fluid, which robs your knees of critical lubrication.

Fighting knee pain with viscosupplementation

Now let’s bring all that we’ve learned together — to combat knee pain caused by OA, we can turn to HA injections to provide much-needed lubrication.

To get started, we administer the first round of HA injections into your affected knee(s). Afterward, you should take it easy for a few days to allow the substance to settle in. Within a week or two, you should start to see some improvement.

Most of our patients benefit from a series of HA injections, which we usually space apart by a week each. Depending on the extent of your OA, we usually do 3-5 rounds of viscosupplementation.

As for how long HA injections provide relief, there are two factors. First, your body naturally absorbs HA, so we typically do follow-up injections every six months or so. Second, OA is progressive, so the more your knee joints wear down, the less these knee gel injections will work. 

You can prolong your viscosupplementation results by getting rid of factors that speed up OA, such as carrying excess pounds and not strengthening the muscles around your knees.

To explore whether knee gel injections are right for your knee OA, we invite you to come see us for an evaluation. To set that in motion, contact us at one of our conveniently located offices in Marlton, Hamilton Township, Northfield, or East Brunswick, New Jersey, to schedule an appointment today.