ARTHRITIS Over time, an active lifestyle can lead to arthritic destruction of your joints. Just as prolonged driving wears down the tread on your tires, the cartilage lining of your joints also wears down and wears off from prolonged use. Arthritis causes pain, stiffness and loss of function. In its early stages, it is treated conservatively with medications, injections, activity modifications, therapy, low impact exercising and bracing. Only when the arthritis has progressed to the point where the joint is worn out and all non-operative treatment options are no longer effective, surgery will be offered. Joint replacement surgery very effectively relieves the pain and restores the motion and function of an arthritic joint.