If you fall or injure yourself in an accident and your bone is traumatized, it can be difficult to determine whether you simply have a bruise or a more severe injury like a broken bone, also known as a bone fracture.

“Identifying a fracture is pretty tough if you are only looking at or feeling the injury,” says Vikash Modi, M.D., a family medicine physician at Piedmont. “But if you have a lot of swelling and a severe amount of pain, there’s a good chance it's broken, and you should go see your doctor.”

Symptoms of a bone fracture

Bone fractures typically present with the following three symptoms:

• Swelling. If you have swelling immediately after the injury, you may have a broken bone. 
• Bone pain. If it hurts to touch the bone, not the soft tissue around it, you may have a fracture.
• Deformity. When the bone or joint doesn’t look normal, you probably have a bone displacement, which is a fracture.

Types of bone fractures

Though there are many types of fractures, the three main categories include:

• Stress fractures. Stress fractures are one of the most common sports injuries. They are small cracks usually found in the lower leg or foot, and they are caused by repeated stress over time.
• Non-displaced fractures. With a non-displaced fracture, the bone cracks all the way or part of the way, but it stays in place.
• Displaced fractures. In a displaced fracture, the bone breaks into two parts and moves out of alignment. Displaced fractures are the hardest fractures to heal.

What should you do if you injure yourself?

If you fall and injure a bone, the first thing you want to do is immobilize the joint or bone so you won’t aggravate the injury.

“Use a sling, brace, wheelchair or crutch to take pressure off the injured bone,” Dr. Modi says. “The more pressure you put on the injury, the worse off it will be.”

Next, try to get any swelling in the injured area under control as soon as possible.

“Swelling is usually the real cause of pain in any initial break,” Dr. Modi says. “So applying ice to reduce swelling is very important.”

Then, depending on the severity of the pain, or if you see a deformity in the bone, you may need to go in to see your doctor.

“Ignoring a broken bone or hoping that it's not broken really can be counterproductive,” Dr. Modi says. “It is quite easy to report to an emergency department or urgent care clinic to get an X-ray. They even use ultrasound now, which is less radiation.”

If the bone is fractured, a doctor will set the bone in its proper place and use a cast or hard boot to immobilize the injury. This will take pressure off of the bone so it can heal properly.

Dr. Modi practices at Piedmont Physicians Brookhaven, located at 3925 Peachtree Road Northeast, Suite 300, Brookhaven, GA 30319. Schedule an appointment with Dr. Modi or one of our other primary care providers. Save time, book online.