How to Care for Your Dislocated Joint Before Seeing a Doctor

The pain, immobility, and unusual look of a dislocated joint makes it a distressing experience. Before you attempt to fix your injury like you see in the movies, you need to know that a dislocated joint is a medical emergency. Though not a life-threatening injury, you need professional medical care to prevent further damage to the joint.

We treat dislocated joints at Pro-Health Urgent Care of Midland. Here, our team explains what you can do to take care of your injury before you arrive for your urgent care visit with a trained medical provider.

Keep joint in fixed position

A dislocated joint means the bones that make up the joint are out of place, usually from a forceful injury. You can have a partial displacement of the bones (subluxation) or complete separation of the bones. 

In either case, the separation may also mean you have damage to the ligaments, tendons, muscles, and blood vessels that support and surround the joint.

You need to keep the dislocated joint in a fixed position to prevent any further damage to the joint and supportive tissue. We recommend using a splint or sling to stabilize the joint and immobilize the areas above and below the dislocation. 

Ice the joint

You can expect significant pain and swelling when you dislocate a joint. Immediately after you immobilize the injury, we recommend applying ice to control pain and swelling. 

Applying ice directly to the skin may cause frostbite, so wrap an ice pack or bag of ice in a clean towel or cloth. You also want to watch the clock when icing your joint, removing the pack every 10-20 minutes to prevent damage to the skin. You can reapply ice after 30 minutes if you continue to have swelling.

Keeping the joint elevated also reduces swelling.

Take over-the-counter pain relievers

You can also take over-the-counter (OTC) pain medications such as acetaminophen or ibuprofen before you see the doctor. When you get to urgent care, let us know what type of medication you took and when so we can treat your pain accordingly.

Get to urgent care as soon as possible

Once you get to urgent care, we examine the joint and take X-rays to make sure you don’t have any broken bones. Depending on the severity of the dislocation, we may only splint the joint and recommend you keep it immobile for several weeks so the parts of the joint can heal. 

However, if you have a complete separation of the bones in the joint, we perform a gentle manipulation to reset the joint and then immobilize it.

First-aid for a dislocated joint can ease pain and prevent further damage before you get a chance to see the doctor. If you think you have a dislocated joint, we can provide the urgent care you need.

Call our office in Midland, Michigan, or use our online booking tool to schedule an urgent care visit. We can also talk through first aid for your joint dislocation through telehealth.