Osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis and the leading cause of disability in the United States — a gradual breakdown of the cartilage that lets your joints move smoothly.
“If you’ve ever eaten a drumstick, you’ve actually seen cartilage,” Dr. Grimsley explains. “It’s that smooth white cap on the end of the bone — slippery almost like a wet bar of soap. Healthy cartilage has no nerve endings, which is exactly why a healthy joint can move without pain.”
As cartilage wears down, that smooth surface breaks down too — bones begin grinding against each other, causing the pain, stiffness, and inflammation that bring most patients in to see me.
While osteoarthritis becomes more common with age, it isn’t only an older person’s disease — joint injury, joint malformation, and genetic factors can bring it on much earlier, and carrying extra weight or working a physically demanding job both raise the risk at any age.
For most people, it develops slowly: mild at first, more disruptive over time. There’s no cure — but that doesn’t mean giving up an active life.
“My goal with every osteoarthritis patient is the same,” Dr. Grimsley says. “Keep you doing the things you actually want to do, for as long as possible, using the least invasive approach that gets you there.”
Treatment is tailored to each patient — exercise, weight management, pain management, and physical therapy come first. When those options are exhausted and the joint is too damaged to manage conservatively, joint replacement becomes the answer — and today’s implants are safer, more precise, and longer-lasting than at any point in his career.
