You’ve likely seen the TikTok videos and challenges that go viral. Some are catchy, but doctors say others get pretty dangerous. NBC 6's Sheli Muñiz spoke to orthopedic surgeon Dr. Clive Woods from Westside Regional Medical Center in Plantation about what he has seen.
NBC 6: What challenges are the ones that give you concern?
Woods: The biggest one is the "skullcrusher." When you’re doing it with two individuals and you jump up and they swipe your legs from beneath you, that's a pretty dangerous one right there. The other ones that I'm seeing are more of the dancing. What happens with the dancing, especially the "blinding lights" challenge, or that requires lateral movements or twisting, it can definitely cause some stress across the knee for the meniscus, or different ligaments in the knee.
NBC 6: As an orthopedic surgeon, what are people saying to you about how it happened?
Woods: A couple of things, “yes, my kids got me into this and I’m doing a dance routine, the next day my knee is swelling up.” I’ve even had it from elderly patients if they have arthritis and they do this dance and flare up their arthritis. They’re coming in to see what’s going on and whether they need a cortisone injection or even anti-inflammatories.
NBC 6: What advice can you give them?
Woods: As far as some of the dances, you got to know what you can tolerate from the standpoint, the time frame, in addition to that, a lot of the lateral and twisting movements you got to be careful about. If I was talking to my grandparents, I would tell my grandmother, grandfather or even my parents -- keep it simple, maybe one-, two-step kind of dances.
