Non-Operative & Pediatric
SPORTS MEDICINE
Keep Moving. Keep Growing
Specialized sports medicine for growing athletes, active adults and everyone who wants to keep doing what they love.
Not every orthopedic injury needs surgery. At Optim Orthopedics, Non-Operative & Pediatric Sports Medicine focuses on finding the source of pain, treating injuries conservatively and helping patients safely return to activity.
Led by Joseph Snooks, MD, a fellowship-trained sports medicine physician who is triple board certified in Sports Medicine, Pediatrics and Internal Medicine, this specialized approach combines an understanding of bones, joints and muscles with something equally important: the age, development, overall health and activity goals of the patient.
Justin Lancaster, MD
Non-Operative Sports Medicine
Joseph Snooks, MD
Non-Operative Orthopedics: Sports Medicine | Pediatrics | Internal MedicineSPORTS MEDICINE WITHOUT STARTING WITH SURGERY
Sometimes the best orthopedic treatment isn't an operation.
It's time to get you back in the game.
Non-operative sports medicine specializes in diagnosing and treating injuries and conditions affecting the bones, joints, muscles, tendons and ligaments without surgery.
Treatment begins by understanding why something hurts, how it is affecting movement and what the patient wants to get back to doing.
Depending on the injury, treatment may include physical therapy, customized exercises, activity modification, imaging, musculoskeletal ultrasound, medications, injections, rehabilitation and other non-surgical options.
Dr. Lancaster's approach takes a combination of primary care & sports medicine to enable his treatments to help maintain already active adults' lifestyles. “As a primary care sports medicine physician, my practice focuses on helping a wide variety of patients, from school-aged children to senior citizens and school athletes to weekend warriors, maintain their active lifestyles, and overall good health,”
Dr. Snooks' clinical interests and available treatments include acute and overuse injuries, bone and joint health, ultrasound-guided procedures, concussion management and individualized rehabilitation.
The goal isn't simply to make pain go away.
01. FIND THE PROBLEM
Understand what’s causing the pain.
A detailed evaluation considers the injury, movement, activity level, training demands and overall health of the patient to help identify the source of the problem.
02. TREAT WITHOUT SURGERY
Start with the least-invasive option that makes sense.
Many sports and musculoskeletal conditions can be managed through targeted rehabilitation, exercise, therapy, activity modification, injections and other conservative treatments.
03. RETURN WITH CONFIDENCE
Recovery should have a destination.
Whether that means returning to the field, getting back in the gym, finishing a 5K or simply moving without pain, treatment is designed around the patient’s goals.
Our board certified and fellowship trained team or orthopedic pediatric physicians provide the most comprehensive care in the region.
Kids Aren't Just Smaller Athletes
Kids’ bones grow. That’s why, when it comes to kids, pediatric orthopedic specialists and surgeons are so important—the way they care for kids today has to anticipate not only where they are now, but where they’ll be five or ten years down the road.
Our team understands kids’ growth and developmental stages, and we design each pediatric orthopedic procedure and rehabilitation plan with an eye toward how each child will grow. For complex patients with long-term needs, we offer continuity of care into young adulthood and help them transition to an adult provider when they’re ready.
Pediatric and adolescent athletes may experience growth-plate injuries and growth-related overuse conditions that do not occur in skeletally mature adults.
Specialized evaluation can help determine:
- Is this normal soreness or an injury?
- Is growth contributing to the pain?
- Is repetitive activity causing an overuse problem?
- Does the athlete need to temporarily modify activity?
- What rehabilitation is appropriate for their age and development?
- When is it appropriate to return to practice or competition?
- How can we reduce the chance of the problem returning?
The goal is to help young athletes recover safely without losing sight of their long-term development.
Growing Bodies Play by Different Rules.
A sore knee in a 12-year-old athlete isn’t necessarily the same problem as a sore knee in a 40-year-old runner.
Children and adolescents are still growing, and that matters when evaluating sports injuries.
Young athletes have growth plates and developing bones that can respond differently to repetitive stress and acute injuries than a mature adult skeleton. Certain overuse injuries involving growth areas are unique to children and adolescents.
That’s where Dr. Snooks’ combination of Pediatrics and Sports Medicine becomes especially valuable.
His pediatric training provides an understanding of childhood growth and development, while his sports medicine training focuses on the demands that running, jumping, throwing, training and competition place on the body.
He isn’t just treating today’s injury. He’s treating an athlete who is still growing.
FOR THE ATHLETE. FOR THE PARENT. FOR THE PERSON WHO JUST WANTS TO MOVE AGAIN.
You don’t need to know exactly what’s wrong before making an appointment.
If pain, an injury or a physical limitation is keeping you or your child from participating fully in sports, exercise or everyday activities, Non-Operative & Pediatric Sports Medicine can be a great place to start.
Let’s figure out what’s keeping you on the sidelines—and what it will take to get you moving again.