PRP Injections for Active Adults: Treating Pain at the Source, Not Just the Symptoms

If you’ve been told to “wait it out,” manage your pain with injections, or that you’re “not bad enough yet” for surgery, you’re not alone. That gap is exactly where many patients get stuck—still in pain, still limited, but with no real plan forward.

At Revitalize Regenerative Orthopedics,we focus on regenerative treatments like PRP injections to help patients actually improve the health of their joints and soft tissue—not just temporarily reduce symptoms. In this interview, he breaks down how PRP works, who it’s for, and why more active adults in Colorado are choosing it as an alternative to surgery.

Can you explain how PRP injections work inside the knee or at the tissue level? What makes this approach different from treatments that simply reduce pain or inflammation?

Most injections into the knee—or really any joint—are geared toward reducing inflammation, and they’re more of a band-aid. PRP is different in that we’re trying to revitalize the joint and make it more pro-growth rather than just anti-inflammatory. Typically, if you see a doctor for an injection, they’ll give you a steroid, which is basically like putting a big dose of ibuprofen directly into the knee. It reduces inflammation, but it doesn’t really do anything for the underlying process.

With PRP, we’re doing the opposite. We’re trying to drive down those pro-inflammatory mediators inside the joint—what I call kind of a “witch’s brew”—and really reboot the environment. I treat joints like organs. If you had a problem with your liver or your kidneys and they were inflamed, you wouldn’t just keep taking anti-inflammatories—you’d want to address what’s actually causing the issue. PRP is about getting to that root cause and creating longer-term improvement, not just temporary relief.

We started talking with PRP injections for knees, but where else in the body can you use PRP?

PRP is really beneficial across a lot of different tissues. We use it for tendons, muscles, ligaments, joints, even certain nerve-related issues. So while knees are a common place people think of, it’s something I use every day across multiple areas depending on what’s going on with the patient.

For patients over 40 with early to moderate osteoarthritis, how do you determine whether PRP injections are the right choice versus steroids or other treatments?

Great question. In my practice, I generally don’t use steroids because they’re toxic to joints and cartilage. They may make you feel better short term, but that pain almost always comes back, and over time it can actually degrade the tissue further. It’s still used all the time in orthopedic medicine, but in my opinion, it should go the way of the dinosaur.

If someone comes in and they’ve failed six weeks or more of conservative care—things like rest, anti-inflammatories, or physical therapy—then I’m going to start talking to them about biologics like PRP instead of band-aid solutions. There are exceptions. If someone’s about to go on a big trip and they can’t walk, I might use a steroid to get them through it. But as a long-term strategy, we’re trying to improve the health of the tissue. PRP introduces growth factors and promotes healing rather than just suppressing symptoms.

What’s the recovery timeline after PRP injections, and what should patients expect?

Typically, after PRP, you’re going to be sore for a couple of days. It can actually feel more inflamed at first because we’re stimulating your immune system and kicking that healing response on. After that, we usually give people about a week of relative rest, and then we get them right back into movement—usually with physical therapy.

That’s a big difference compared to steroid injections, where you’re told to just go live your life. With PRP, movement is part of the healing process. We want to load the tissue and strengthen it, so we combine PRP with physical therapy starting about a week to ten days after treatment and continue that for six to eight weeks.

How many PRP injections do patients typically need for chronic pain or arthritis?

It really depends on the severity of the issue. For mild to moderate arthritis or soft tissue problems, PRP is often a great next step after conservative treatments haven’t worked. As things get more advanced, we may look at doing multiple PRP treatments or even moving into something like stem cell therapy.

This is where experience matters. I try to match the treatment to the patient’s condition, their goals, and how severe the problem is. Not everyone needs the most aggressive or expensive option. Someone who just wants to walk comfortably around their house has very different goals than someone trying to get back to high-level athletics. So it’s really about aligning the treatment plan with the individual.

What are some of the biggest misconceptions patients have about PRP injections?

One of the biggest misconceptions is that you have to go out of the country to get a good PRP treatment. That’s just not true. There are plenty of experienced physicians here doing this at a very high level.

Another issue is that people assume all PRP is the same. It’s not. The way it’s processed, the dosage, whether it’s guided properly—those things matter. Experience matters. There’s a big difference between someone who does this every day and someone who took a weekend course and added it as a service.

Can PRP injections help patients avoid or delay surgery, especially for knee pain?

That’s really where most of my patients fall. I see three main groups: people who want to avoid surgery at all costs, people who want to delay it—especially if they’re active and not ready for a joint replacement—and people with soft tissue injuries where we can actually help the body heal without surgery.

For arthritis, there’s no true cure, but PRP can give people one to two years of meaningful pain relief, which is very different from a steroid injection that might last six weeks. For soft tissue injuries, we’re actually trying to fix the problem, not just manage it.

That said, there are cases where surgery is necessary. If a tendon is fully torn and retracted, PRP isn’t going to reattach it. But for a large percentage of patients—probably 80 to 90% of what I see—this is a very real option.

Do you see patients who are told they’re not “bad enough” for surgery but are still in significant pain?

All the time. That’s actually a huge gap in traditional care. Joint replacement specialists will often say, “You’re not ready yet—come back when you are,” and in the meantime, patients are left managing pain with temporary solutions.

What I try to do is give people a better option during that window—something that can improve their quality of life now, delay surgery, or potentially help them avoid it altogether. Especially for younger patients, that matters, because joint replacements only last so long. If you start that process too early, you’re looking at multiple surgeries over your lifetime.

How does PRP fit into the lifestyle of active adults here in Colorado?

That’s most of the people I see. Whether they’re in their 40s, 50s, or even 70s, they want to stay active. They want to ski, hike, bike, and keep doing the things they enjoy without long downtime.

A lot of people simply don’t want to go through a six-month to one-year recovery from surgery if they can avoid it. Others just want to keep their own body parts as long as possible. So there’s definitely a strong mindset here toward finding alternatives that allow them to stay active.

What should patients know about the quality and experience behind PRP treatments?

This is important. Not all PRP is the same. The way it’s prepared, the dosage, whether ultrasound guidance is used, and the experience of the provider all make a difference.

There are places where it’s treated as an add-on service, and someone with limited experience is performing it. That’s very different from a practice like mine, where this is what we do all day, every day, and treatments are customized based on the patient, their condition, and their goals.

What’s your advice to someone considering PRP injections?

At the very least, get a proper evaluation. We do a 90-minute assessment where I walk through everything—your diagnosis, all your options, including doing nothing, physical therapy, surgery, or PRP. I lay out the pros and cons so you can make an informed decision.

There’s no hard sell. But you need to understand what’s actually going on and what your options are before you decide. Because at the end of the day, the treatment only works if it aligns with the patient and they’re willing to be part of the process.

Ready to learn if PRP injections are right for you?

If you’re dealing with knee pain, arthritis, or a lingering injury and you’ve been told to wait—or pushed toward surgery—you owe it to yourself to understand all of your options.

Schedule a 90-minute, in-depth evaluation with Dr. Kevin O’Donnell at Revitalize Regenerative Orthopedics. You’ll walk away with a clear diagnosis, a personalized treatment plan, and a real understanding of what’s possible for your recovery.