Surgeons are often championed when they tell their patients to wait as long as possible before having joint replacement surgery. This is good advice. Joint replacement surgeries are major operations that have dangerous complications; they should be a last resort. Prosthetic joints also only have a life of ~10-12 years. If you get one too early, you are facing a second surgery – only now 10-12 years older (= greater risk of complications).
In regenerative medicine, we have a different philosophy. We agree you should put off joint replacement surgery for as long as possible, BUT we warn the patient of waiting too long to have something done. Yes, regenerative medicine does work for bone-on-bone, ‘end of the road’ joints. Most of these patients can expect pain relief, better stability and improved range of motion and sometimes even improvements in joint space. However the most dramatic results are seen in patients who have joint pain or thinning of the joint space, but are not bone-on-bone yet.
The more joint space you have going into a regenerative medicine procedure, the more you’re going to end up with and the longer they will last. The moral of the story is…. DON’T WAIT to get regenerative medicine for your joint pain. Invest in your joints NOW and you will have more life in your years later. We encourage you to NOT wait for your joints to be bone-on-bone before getting regenerative medicine. If you do have bone-on-bone joints, regenerative medicine is your last hope.
