The ankle is one of the structures in your leg that makes movements like walking and running possible. When you sprain an ankle, it means that you’ve damaged one of the ligaments in the ankle, and how much the ligament has been damaged directly affects how long it takes to heal. Ankle sprains are typically grouped into three levels of severity. Here are the potential healing times for each of these three levels of ankle sprains:
1. Severe
As you might expect, severe ankle sprains tend to take the longest amount of time to heal. Severe sprains tend to involve complete or nearly complete tearing of the ankle ligament. Such a sprain is often very painful, and it may require you to use crutches or an immobility boot. Some severe ankle sprains may even need surgery. If this is the case, the sprain is likely to take up to six months to heal completely. Even if you don’t need surgery, a severe sprain is likely to take at least three months to recover.
2. Moderate
The middle level of ankle sprains is the moderate sprain. A moderate ankle sprain usually causes only partial tearing of the ligament, so there should be less pain than a severe sprain. However, the pain of such a sprain can make unaided walking difficult. This level of sprain also tends to cause bruising of the ankle. As for how long this level of ankle sprain can take to heal, most people with moderate sprains need between six and eight weeks to heal.
3. Mild
The best you can hope for is that you have a mild ankle sprain, and this level of ankle sprain takes the least amount of time to heal. Mild sprains don’t tend to involve any serious tearing of the ankle ligament. Most people simply experience an overstretching of the ligament. The overstretching tends to cause soreness, swelling and a slight difficulty keeping your balance. The majority of mild ankle sprains will feel much better within two weeks, but it may take up to a month for you to return to vigorous activities like playing sports.
Decrease the recovery time for your sprained ankle with help from Whatcom Physical Therapy
Treating your ankle properly can help reduce how long it takes a sprained ankle to heal, and this is why your sprain treatment should start at Whatcom Physical Therapy. Our team offers free screenings that can help reveal how serious your ankle sprain is. We’ll then use this information to create a personalized treatment plan for you, and your plan will be designed to decrease recovery time by using therapy techniques like:
Contact our team today for more information or to schedule an initial appointment to start treating your ankle sprain.
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