What to do when your knees pop

Do your knees make popping or grinding noises when you bend or squat?
Knee pain and those popping, clicking or grinding sounds within the joint are common problems for many people, but they can be attributed to several different reasons.
Knee popping, called crepitus, is normal as long as it isn’t painful. Knee popping is typically caused by gas bubbles that build up and burst inside your knee joint. It could be ligaments or tendons that have snapped back into place.
If you’ve injured your knee and you experienced pain after feeling a loud pop, it’s possible you’ve suffered a ligament injury. There are two common types of ligament injuries, the ACL, or anterior cruciate ligament, or the MCL, or medial collateral ligament.
After an ACL injury, most people experience pain and swelling, and then their knee gives out. If you’ve suffered a MCL injury, you may also have knee pain and swelling, but also difficulty in bending your leg and you may feel instability on your feet.
Other possibilities include:
• Sprains or strains on your ligaments and tendons surrounding and supporting your kneecap.
• A meniscus tear, or a tear in the rubber-like disc that cushions your knee.
• Kneecap fracture or bone break
• Dislocated knee
If swollen and painful knees have gotten worse over time, you could be suffering from a degenerative joint condition, like osteoarthritis. Or it could be bursitis or tendinitis.
If you’re in pain, something is wrong. It’s important that you don’t cause further harm to your knee joint. Consult with a doctor, who can decide what the best course of action could be in your situation. The recommended treatment plan, depending on your condition, could involve physical therapy, surgery or strengthening exercises.
If you don’t have health insurance, AmeriPlan may be able to help. AmeriPlan USA offers discount healthcare plans, an alternative to health insurance, that can provid discounted medical care for you and your entire family. There is no waiting period or upper age limits and no cumbersome insurance paperwork to fill out. Instead, you’ll be able to have instant access to a physician anytime you need healthcare services and take advantage of its medical discount programs.
AmeriPlan discount healthcare plans offer a unique telemedicine program called AmeriDoc. AmeriPlan medical discount healthcare plans allow its members to email or call a physician any time for a consultation.