Physical therapy treatment is one of the safest medical interventions you can receive, and can delay or even remove the necessity of a surgery as well as decrease your recovery time after a surgery. It can have many positive side effects, including improvements in overall strength, flexibility and endurance. After PT, many people return to the same or even higher level of function than they did prior to their injury.

If you choose to forgo treatment, in some cases, your condition may improve on its own, although perhaps not as quickly as it would have if PT treatment had been implemented. In other cases, your condition may not improve at all or get worse, such as chronic tendinitis that may progress and form calcifications, or poor flexibility that can lead to muscle tears or tendon ruptures.