A thousand stories of freedom from knee pain.
Mary’s miraculous escape from knee pain is one of 9,000 patient success stories from the Joint Relief Institute…
Chris won his tennis tournament the same day he had his first gel injection.
Ryan’s knees didn’t let him down once while he was hiking in Patagonia during a dream vacation with his wife.
Maybe you’re not looking to be the club tennis champ. Your dream vacation might not be scrambling over rocks and logs to trek the Tronador hanging glacier. Ending knee pain means different things to different people…
For Diane, freedom from knee pain means moving effortlessly between her beloved raised flower beds and her greenhouse stuffed with lime trees and Bougainvillea.
For Maggy, gel injections meant she could keep teaching, a job that keeps her on her feet all day.
Perhaps…
You run a busy home or someone is counting on you to care for them. Maybe you’d like to walk the grandkids around Disneyland.
Every one of our patients has their own success story. And their stories are not dulled by painkillers. Their stories don’t include a frightening chapter about risky surgery. Their stories don’t involve long months of bed rest followed by more months of frustrating physical therapy.
Whatever a life without knee pain means for you, that life could be minutes away. You could be like Mary, Chris, Ryan, Diane, Maggy, and the thousands of Google reviewers who have given us five stars because we got rid of their knee pain and treated them like family. Our patients’ amazing stories are the reason we’ve never needed to use actors in our TV ads.
If you have knee pain from osteoarthritis, why don’t you come into the clinic and talk to our friendly staff? (Our staff’s friendliness is another reason for those five-star reviews). When you come in, we’ll go through everything with you. That way, you can see for yourself whether a simple gel injection might be all you need to get back on your feet.
Book a Risk Free AssessmentYou’re welcome to visit our clinic in Chicago, Illinois, for a Risk Free Assessment from Monday through Friday. We’ll take an X-ray of your knees, then take the time to go through your options. While you’re here, you’ll see patients heading out to birdie the 18th hole at Oak Brook Golf Club, rip the bindweed out of their lawns, or pop the hood on the Camaro.
They’ll tell you that their relief is immediate and that it lasts.
Of course, the decision whether to go ahead with treatment is always yours. Your risk free assessment includes x-ray and there’s no obligation to start treatment. Our staff are trained to help, not to sell, so there’s no pressure here. We’re here to give you the facts about freedom from knee pain.
So, even if other orthopedic or arthritis doctors have told you that they can’t help you, it won’t cost you a single dollar to explore all your options with us. And you deserve to get all the facts before considering rolling the dice with surgery or living another day with pain.
COVID-safe
practices
We follow a rigorous protocol designed by our doctors to ensure that our clinic is COVID-safe. Every surface is disinfected, and you will have contact only with your doctor or physician assistant during your visit.
success stories
Our patients in their own words.
All the testimonials on this page are taken from Google reviews by genuine patients. You can see the reviews for yourself by googling the Joint Relief Institute.
“Wonderful experience! Everyone is so friendly & really make you feel comfortable. If this is all it takes to have a better quality of life, I’ll be back if necessary.”
Maggy Gay
“The treatment that I received today was a wonderful experience.
I’ve been in so much pain for years that both of my knees were making just a few steps were so painful that I would just sit and cry. I was unable to enjoy all the things that that made me happy. I’m now 72 years old, and I used to look forward to the so-called golden years, but I’ve been very disappointed with the whole idea of aging and enjoying my life. Until now. This has been my second appointment for the magic gel. I can now look forward to tomorrow’s adventures and have no pain in my knees. Thank you!!”
Josephine Tovo
how it works
Knee injections are like putting a pillow in your knee joint.
You were born with a plump layer of cartilage in your knees. This cartilage is like a pillow between the thigh bone and the leg bone. Your cartilage pillow gets thinner over time. And this pillow gets thinner faster for the 30 million Americans with osteoarthritis. That’s because osteoarthritis is a disease that eats away at the cartilage.
When the cartilage gets too thin to keep the bones in your leg apart, the bones rub together. This rubbing of the bones causes friction. That friction causes inflammation in the knee. And that inflammation leads to anything from soreness to sharp pain.
Without treatment, your cartilage pillow may be worn away completely. Then you are what’s called bone-on-bone, which can be extremely painful.
As a result of soreness or pain in your knees, you pull back from activities you love. You watch helplessly as the weeds take over the garden, or you stop playing golf with your buddies. Even a walk around the block becomes too painful.
Because exercise becomes painful, some people with knee pain gain weight. The extra weight puts more pressure on the knee joint–pressure that causes even more pain. Being in more pain means moving even less. And moving less means gaining more weight and … becoming less mobile. You’re caught in a vicious cycle of failing health.
Some people with knee pain stop trusting themselves to leave home alone because they might fall.
Thousands of Americans become old before their time as a result of knee pain that easily could be treated. Fortunately, that need not be the case for you. At the Joint Relief Institute, we offer a proven treatment for knee pain that has been like a fountain of youth for our patients.
Put simply, we have the expertise and technology to plump the pillow in your knees. That pillow is made of cartilage, and that cartilage is made of hyaluronic acid. So, by injecting a gel made of hyaluronic acid, we can make your knee feel 20 or 30 years younger.
And there are no side effects because the gel we place in your knee is made of the same hyaluronic acid that your body used to produce naturally.
Get started“It is a gift not to have surgery. Last year, my shots lasted all year. I taught fulltime, and I would not have been able to do that without these injections. Thank you.
Mario was so kind and helpful. This is my second time here, and I have never had a difficult time. Everyone is very helpful and considerate.”
Linda Rager
“I highly recommend Joint Relief Institute. Their staff is very professional and friendly. There is no pain during the procedure. Within a few short weeks, I was free from knee pain. Thank you so much.”
Greg Allen
A better life
Pain-free knees –
too good to be true?
Doctors have been treating knee pain by injecting hyaluronic acid gel for decades, so we know it’s 100% safe. We also know that knee injections are highly effective at relieving pain because medical studies have proven again and again how effective knee injections are for those with osteoarthritis. These years of experience and that independent proof are why knee injections are covered happily by Medicare and most insurance companies.
So, why do some people say knee injections don’t work? The answer is simple…
A pillow can only make you comfortable if you put it in the right place.
Knee injections are highly effective when done properly. However, your gel injection can only restore the pillow between the bones if the gel is placed in the areas between your bones where you’re missing cartilage. The need for accuracy sounds obvious, but hitting the right spot is hard for a doctor going in blind. “Going in blind” means the doctor has to pick a spot on your knee, inject, and hope for the best.
Unfortunately, medical research proves that hoping for the best works as little as 30% of the time. Up to 70% of the time, the gel is placed nowhere near the area where the pain is coming from. Because the physician doesn’t admit they were guessing about the spot (and, therefore, likely to miss), the patient thinks knee injections don’t work for them – clearing the way for the doctor to recommend a $200,000 knee replacement.
That’s why you owe it to yourself to be CERTAIN you’ve tried a correctly placed gel treatment before you risk surgery. And the only doctors who can deliver that certainty are those who have a live image of the inside of your knee. With a live image during treatment, the doctor can see through your skin to where your pain is coming from. This way, the doctor can guide the needle to inject the gel exactly in the right place every single time.
Because this technology is so advanced, every machine costs a small fortune. That’s why many doctors won’t spend money on the equipment. These doctors hope they can hit the right spot as they go in blind. As a result, patients might think gel injections didn’t work for them. That’s because their doctor didn’t tell them there was up to a 70% chance the gel was in the wrong spot. That’s only a 3-in-10 chance of total pain relief that you could have if your doctor were using live imaging equipment.
At the Joint Relief Institute, you’ll know your pillow is plumped and in position because we’ve invested in digital imaging equipment. Each one of our physicians is guided by incredible live digital imaging equipment every time they place this “magic” serum in a patient’s knee. We don’t guess anything. You’ll watch on the monitor as your physician places the gel in exactly the right place in your knee joint.
Get started
take action today
Stop the decline in your knees and take back your health.
There’s no greater secret to wellness than to keep moving. Every day that your knee pain keeps you from moving is a day that your overall health suffers. Your overall health will improve when your gel injections get you moving confidently again.
Gel injections also protect the cartilage you have left. So, the sooner you act, the greater the benefits to your health all around.
“Dr. Clem and Perla are excellent in customer service and provide a second language as an added bonus! The service provided always gives us relief and comfort to the joints.”
Leticia Roppo
“This place is no joke. I was unsure of this place after seeing all the mailings and ads in newspapers.
After deciding to try it because my ortho doctor only wanted to give me meds for pain and cortisone shots, I made my first appointment, and since day one, my knee pain is gone. 3 injections into the correct area, and I can do things without pain again. The place is clean, and COVID-19 protocol applies. The staff is very friendly, and the doctors are great. Give them a call and make your appointment. You won’t be disappointed.”
James Kelly
We can help
A note from the doctors of the Joint Relief Institute.
We, the doctors of the Joint Relief Institute, are board-certified in Anesthesiology, Pain Medicine, Sports Medicine, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Emergency Medicine, Family Medicine, and Urgent Care. If you’ll give us a moment, we’d like to tell you why we came together as a team from different backgrounds and chose to build the Institute.
First, you’ve already read above how exceptionally effective knee injections are in providing instant long-lasting pain relief. That’s true, but only when the knee injection is accurate, and up to 70% of joint injections are not given accurately. This means that millions of Americans missed their chance of a low-risk, inexpensive, life-changing procedure. In fact, many people thought their treatments failed when they technically never received them. The treatment never reached the raw spots on the cartilage surface to coat and soothe them. Unfortunately, the majority of these people went on to have surgeries they never needed in the first place. We here at the JRI know we are in the joint 100% of the time, and that knowing allows us to provide exceptional pain relief to our patients.
Recent research shows that between 34% and 61% of knee replacements are totally unnecessary. That’s up to hundreds of thousands of unnecessary knee surgeries every year. We at JRI love keeping our patients out of surgery, yet still pain-free.
Knee replacement is not a minor surgical procedure. Each one of us here at JRI has witnessed avoidable complications of knee replacements like infections, heart attacks, strokes, leg, and lung clots. After knee replacement surgery, at least one out of every five patients rates his outcome as “unsatisfied.” Even the luckiest patient faces a considerable period of bed rest, then a long road to their best-case scenario. And that best-case scenario is bad for many people…
The truth is, a knee replacement doesn’t give you a “new” knee like many people think before they sign up for it. In fact, only 5% of patients get anything close to normal activity after knee replacement surgery. Even worse…
The top reason for getting a knee replacement is chronic pain, but 39% of knee replacement patients have knee pain AFTER the surgery–pain that gets worse over time. Unlike the pain they had before the replacement, this after-surgery chronic pain is very difficult if not impossible to treat. Doctors themselves don’t even understand why it happens, or how to prevent it. It might be a reaction to the way the prosthetic metal ball is forced into the leg or the scar that develops around it but we don’t even know if that is true. We here at JRI strive to keep you off the surgical table and into enjoying your life.
You see, when you have a knee replacement, you close the door on your other options. The only thing you can do for pain after a knee replacement is take ever-increasing doses of mind-numbing and potentially addictive painkillers. And the longer you take painkillers, the greater the chances of bleeding ulcers and kidney failure. Even popular over-the-counter painkillers like Advil and Aleve just received a strengthened warning from the FDA for being the reason for many heart attacks and strokes.
These statistics (and worse) are from respected and widely read medical journals, so you can find them yourself on Google. However, these aren’t statistics to us–they’re real people. We see these patients every day at the Joint Relief Institute–people who are in pain after knee replacement surgery. They’ve had one knee replaced, and they will do anything possible to avoid having surgery on the other knee.
As doctors, we chose to specialize in the medicine of taking away pain because taking away pain is perhaps the most fulfilling career a healthcare provider can find. That fulfillment is one reason we have more than 20 doctors applying for every vacancy we have at the Institute. Our patients arrive in pain and walk out ready to reclaim activities they thought they’d left behind, in the past. That makes this a happy place to work. That joy is why we do what we do.
So, you can imagine how frustrating it is to meet people who are in pain that they never should have experienced. We’re talking about pain from incorrect treatment or pain from a knee replacement they didn’t need.
That is why we work at the Joint Relief Institute. Each and every one of us wants to make sure that as many people with knee pain as possible can undergo a simple, low-risk, low-cost procedure that could change their lives.
Some people do need knee replacements; however, there is no way back after a knee replacement, so all we’re asking you is this: Please don’t decide that traumatic surgery is your only option without first trying gel injections. And only try gel injections in a clinic with the doctors and equipment to make sure the injections are done properly.
Knee injections are safe, effective, painless, and generally without any side effects, so you have nothing to lose and potentially everything to gain by trying injections first. If you’ve read our hundreds of five-star Google reviews, you know that your life too could change in a matter of minutes. We work here because it works. What we do works.
We would love to see you in person. Please come in for a Risk Free Assessment so we can answer all your questions.
Mike Hana, MD
Founder, On behalf of the doctors, physician assistants, and staff of the
Joint Relief Institute
Frequently asked questions about hyaluronic acid knee injections and relieving knee pain.
What happens during my knee injection treatment?
During your treatment for knee pain, your doctor will position a state-of-the-art digital X-ray machine over your knee. This incredible equipment is perfectly safe, and it gives the doctor a live video image of the inside of your knee. This means the doctor can see under the skin into your knee to find the troubled areas and guide the gel precisely to cover the sore spots 100% of the time where the gel will provide maximum relief.
The live video image means our injections are ALWAYS accurate. You’ll be able to see that for yourself on the monitor during your treatment. (Without live imaging, up to 70% of the joint injections land completely outside the joint space where it will never be able to give any pain relief.)
Will I feel anything during the injection in my knee?
Many patients wouldn’t believe we had even started the procedure if they hadn’t watched the whole thing on the monitor. The procedure is so gentle because we use a fine needle and an anesthetic spray to numb your knee. As a result, you’ll feel nothing but relief.
How quickly will knee injections take away my pain?
Knee injections provide pain relief in your knees in three ways, starting immediately.
First, the injection soothes the raw surfaces of your distressed cartilage. The relief is so immediate, you’ll feel better the moment you stand up from the doctor’s chair.
This first wave of relief rolls into the second wave of relief, a robust anti-inflammatory effect. This effect continues to work independently over the next few days, reducing and treating the painful inflammation in your knee.
Your third wave of relief comes as the gel itself begins to form a comfortable pillow inside your knee joint. This pillow delivers long-term relief by reducing the friction that caused your inflammation in the first place. You’ll enjoy anywhere from six months up to a few years of freedom from pain as your knees feel young again with this fresh pillow inside.
How many knee treatments will I need?
A typical course of treatment with hyaluronic acid is one injection every week for three to five weeks. So, you’ll have three to five injections spread over three to five weeks.
How long will my relief from knee pain last?
For some patients, the pain relief from a single series of three to five weekly injections will last for years. Other patients might come back for another series of injections six months later. Repeating the treatment is no problem because the treatment is safe and FDA-approved.
How long your relief lasts depends on your knees and your body, so we can tell you more about your specific situation when you come in for your Risk Free Assessment. Visit our clinic in Chicago, Illinois (IL) and meet our specialists.
How do you make sure the treatment is as effective as possible?
About 70% of arthritis sufferers have a buildup of fluid in their joints, called bursitis. The bursitis fluid contains chemicals that cause you even more pain.
With blind injections, this fluid is very difficult to find and sometimes impossible to drain completely. Because we use live video X-ray equipment to see right into your knee, we can see where it is accumulating in your knee and drain the last drop of it before your treatment. Draining this pain-causing fluid gives you yet another level of immediate pain relief.
Removing the fluid also provides a long-term benefit. If the fluid were left in your knee, it would dilute the medicine injected into your knee. By removing the fluid before we inject the gel, we ensure your hyaluronic acid treatment is not diluted to produce the maximum effect.
Are there any side effects from hyaluronic acid injections?
Hyaluronic acid is the natural building block of human cartilage, so it’s 100% safe to inject hyaluronic acid into your body to restore the cartilage pillow between your bones. There are no side effects from this naturally occurring substance.
Are knee injections covered by Medicare and insurance?
Knee injections are covered by Medicare and by most insurance. In fact, many insurance companies will ask you to have knee injections before considering surgery. (Insurance companies understand how effective this treatment is compared to a risky knee surgery, so they almost always provide the coverage for it.)
When you come in for your Risk Free Assessment, our team can do a complimentary insurance coverage check for you.
If you are experiencing chronic knee or shoulder pain, please contact us today to setup a no obligation consultation. We have three convenient locations in the greater Chicagoland area and we're passionate about getting our patient's mobility back.
Take the next step
Do you have more questions?
Our doctors, physician assistants, and other staff are dedicated to helping you live pain-free. You can take as much time as you need to ask any questions you have when you come in for a Risk Free Assessment.
You deserve to have all the facts, especially if you are considering putting your body through any kind of surgery. Before you consider surgery, find out first whether your pain could be taken away by a simple plumping of the natural “pillow” in your knees.
Call (708) 963 0069
COVID-safe
practices
We follow a rigorous protocol designed by our doctors to ensure that our clinic is COVID-safe. Every surface is disinfected, and you will have contact only with your doctor or physician assistant during your visit.