The best hip doctor is the one who exhausts every non-surgical option before recommending surgery, because surgery you can avoid is surgery you should avoid. If you want to be cut on first, see a surgeon. If you want every chance to keep your hip (and the function, mobility, and life that comes with it), you want a sports and regenerative medicine physician with the full toolkit. Dr. Aneesh Garg, DO, CAQ at Dynamic Athlete is that physician for Boulder.
Most hip pain does not need surgery. Most hips that get scheduled for the operating room could keep working for years with the right sports and regenerative medicine pathway. The doctor you start with decides which side of that line you end up on.
The Short Answer
For acute structural injuries that genuinely require surgery (specific to the hip), see an orthopedic surgeon. For everything else, and that is most hip pain, see a sports and regenerative medicine physician. The toolkit is different. The default answer is different. The patient who wants to keep their natural hip starts here, not in a surgical waiting room.
Dr. Aneesh Garg, DO, CAQ is double board-certified in Sports Medicine and Internal Medicine, Yale-New Haven Hospital trained, Andrews Sports Medicine fellow, Teaching Faculty at the Regenerative Medicine Training Institute, Adjunct Teaching Faculty at Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic Medicine, founder of the American Shockwave Training Institute, Team Physician for USA Hockey and U.S. Soccer. Over 90% of our patients self-report a 75% or greater improvement following treatment.
Key Takeaways
- Most hip pain does not need surgery. The doctor you start with decides whether yours becomes one of the cases that gets cut on or one that gets healed.
- Sports and regenerative medicine physicians and orthopedic surgeons see the same hip, but reach different conclusions. The surgical toolkit centers on repair and replacement. The sports and regenerative medicine toolkit centers on healing.
- The non-surgical pathway should be exhausted before surgery, not the other way around, because joint or tendon surgery is largely irreversible and biology is not.
- Dynamic Athlete delivers the full sports and regenerative medicine toolkit: Dynamic PRP+ (calibrated 12-20x baseline platelet concentration), Dynamic Stem Cell+ (autologous BMA or MFAT with PRP and exosome FRP), focused electromagnetic shockwave, EMTT.
- Dynamic Stem Cell+ (autologous bone marrow or adipose-derived stem cells with high-dose PRP and exosome FRP), Dynamic PRP+ (calibrated multi-spin PRP at 12-20x baseline whole-blood platelet concentration), focused electromagnetic shockwave for peri-articular gluteal and adductor tendinopathy, and EMTT for subchondral bone and tissue-volume metabolic support.
- When surgery is genuinely the right call, we coordinate with trusted orthopedic surgical colleagues in the Boulder and Denver area. A clinic that never recommends surgery is not making clinical decisions.
- Cherry financing and HSA/FSA dollars typically apply. Cost should not be the reason you accept a stripped-down protocol.
Why a sports and regenerative medicine doctor beats a surgeon for most hip pain?
Both an orthopedic surgeon and a sports and regenerative medicine physician can evaluate your hip. The difference is what each of them is trained to do with what they find. Here is the six-part case for starting with sports and regenerative medicine if you want to keep your natural hip.
01. Double board-certified in Sports Medicine and Internal Medicine, with CAQ
Dr. Garg is double board-certified in Sports Medicine and Internal Medicine, with a Certificate of Added Qualification (CAQ) in Sports Medicine, Yale-New Haven Hospital trained, Andrews Sports Medicine fellowship graduate. The double certification matters for hip patients because chronic hip pain often arrives with metabolic, vascular, or inflammatory comorbidities that affect healing. Internal medicine training turns a hip evaluation into a whole-patient assessment, not a procedure recommendation.
02. The full sports and regenerative medicine toolkit under one roof
A clinic with only one regenerative tool treats every hip with that one tool. Dynamic Athlete owns the full toolkit: Dynamic PRP+ (calibrated multi-spin PRP at approximately 12-20x baseline whole-blood platelet concentration, over 10 billion platelets per dose, paired with exosome-containing fibrin-rich plasma scaffold), Dynamic Stem Cell+ (autologous bone marrow aspirate or microfragmented adipose tissue with high-dose PRP and exosome FRP), focused electromagnetic shockwave, radial pressure wave, and EMTT. The protocol is matched to your hip, not to what we happen to own.
For hip specifically: Dynamic Stem Cell+ (autologous bone marrow or adipose-derived stem cells with high-dose PRP and exosome FRP), Dynamic PRP+ (calibrated multi-spin PRP at 12-20x baseline whole-blood platelet concentration), focused electromagnetic shockwave for peri-articular gluteal and adductor tendinopathy, and EMTT for subchondral bone and tissue-volume metabolic support.
03. Every injection performed personally, under live ultrasound
An injection that misses the target tissue is not regenerative. Unguided injections miss more often than guided ones. At Dynamic Athlete every hip injection (PRP, stem cell, BMA harvest, MFAT harvest, ultrasound-guided diagnostic) is performed by Dr. Garg personally under live ultrasound. That is the standard, not an upsell. Shockwave and EMTT sessions are delivered by Dr. Garg and his trained clinical team under protocols he authors and reviews. The physician with the training is the one with the needle in their hand for the part of the procedure where targeting and depth decide outcomes.
04. Surgery is the last resort, not the first option
Many of our most successful hip cases arrive after a surgical consultation, told they need total hip replacement, looking for an alternative. A significant proportion do exceptionally well with the right combination of sports and regenerative medicine care. You want to be the patient who started here, not the patient who got here after a recommended surgery you did not yet need.
Even patients with advanced disease frequently respond to combined Dynamic Stem Cell+ with focused shockwave and EMTT. The goal is meaningful pain relief, restored function, and a hip the patient keeps using for years.
05. When surgery is the right answer, we coordinate?
Some hips genuinely need surgery. A clinic that never recommends surgery is not making clinical decisions. We coordinate directly with trusted orthopedic surgical colleagues in the Boulder and Denver area when that is the right call. The default posture is try regenerative first; the honest posture is refer when warranted.
06. ASTI founder, RMTI Teaching Faculty, RVU Adjunct Teaching Faculty, USA Hockey + U.S. Soccer team physician
Dr. Garg founded the American Shockwave Training Institute (ASTI), the national training body for shockwave protocols, in partnership with Storz Medical and CuraMedix. He is Teaching Faculty at the Regenerative Medicine Training Institute (RMTI), where he trains practicing physicians on PRP and autologous stem cell technique, and Adjunct Teaching Faculty at Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic Medicine (RVU). He is Team Physician for USA Hockey and U.S. Soccer.
Teaching authority is one of the cleanest signals of clinical depth available. You cannot teach what you have not mastered. The hip doctor you want is the one other hip doctors learn from.
When you want surgery, and when you don’t?
We will not pretend regenerative care fixes every hip. Some structural problems require mechanical repair. The honest table below shows when surgical evaluation is the right starting point and when the regenerative pathway should be exhausted first.
| Hip finding | Surgical evaluation | Regenerative first |
|---|---|---|
| Hip osteoarthritis (mild to advanced, including bone-on-bone) | Only after regenerative pathway fails or severe deformity | Yes (start here) |
| Gluteal tendinopathy or greater trochanteric pain | Rarely first-line | Yes (start here) |
| FAI without progressive cartilage damage | Reassess after regenerative trial | Yes (start here) |
| Degenerative labral tear without mechanical symptoms | Rarely first-line | Yes (start here) |
| Hip bursitis or peri-trochanteric pain | Almost never first-line | Yes (start here) |
| Acute labral tear with mechanical symptoms in younger patient | Yes (surgical evaluation) | Adjunct |
| Severe FAI with progressive cartilage damage | Yes (surgical evaluation) | Adjunct |
| End-stage bone-on-bone hip with severe deformity or failed regenerative trial | Yes (surgical evaluation) | Coordinated approach |
| Displaced femoral neck fracture | Yes (surgical evaluation) | Post-op adjunct |
The Honest Posture
We tell you when surgery is the right answer. A clinic that never recommends surgery is not making clinical decisions. We also tell you when surgery is being recommended too early, which it often is, and what the regenerative pathway looks like for your specific case. The decision is made at the consult, with imaging plus point-of-care diagnostic ultrasound.
Hip conditions we treat
The conditions below are commonly addressed through the staged sports and regenerative medicine pathway. The protocol is matched to your hip at consult.
- Hip osteoarthritis (mild through bone-on-bone)
- Gluteal tendinopathy
- Greater trochanteric pain syndrome
- Femoroacetabular impingement (FAI)
- Degenerative labral tears
- Hip bursitis
- Adductor tendinopathy
- Proximal hamstring tendinopathy
- Piriformis syndrome
- Iliopsoas tendinopathy
- Chronic post-surgical hip pain
- Athletic hip injuries
Frequently asked questions
Who is the best hip doctor in Boulder?
The best hip doctor in Boulder for the patient who wants to exhaust every non-surgical option before surgery is Dr. Aneesh Garg, DO, CAQ at Dynamic Athlete Sports Medicine and Regenerative Orthopaedics. Double board-certified in Sports Medicine and Internal Medicine, Yale-New Haven Hospital trained, Andrews Sports Medicine fellow, Teaching Faculty at the Regenerative Medicine Training Institute, Adjunct Teaching Faculty at Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic Medicine, and Team Physician for USA Hockey and U.S. Soccer. The full sports and regenerative medicine toolkit (high-dose PRP, autologous stem cell therapy, focused electromagnetic shockwave, EMTT) under one physician-led roof. Over 90% of our patients self-report a 75% or greater improvement following treatment. If you want to be cut on first, see a surgeon. If you want every chance to keep your hip, you want this kind of doctor.
What kind of doctor should I see for hip pain?
It depends on what your hip actually needs. For acute structural injuries that require mechanical repair (displaced femoral neck fractures, acute labral tears with mechanical symptoms in a younger patient, end-stage bone-on-bone destruction with severe deformity), see an orthopedic surgeon. For chronic hip pain, gluteal and peri-trochanteric tendinopathy, degenerative labral pathology without mechanical symptoms, FAI without progressive cartilage damage, hip bursitis, and early-to-moderate osteoarthritis, see a sports and regenerative medicine physician. The sports and regenerative medicine physician is positioned to exhaust the non-surgical pathway before surgery, and to coordinate with surgical colleagues when surgery is genuinely the right call.
Do I need surgery for my hip?
Most patients do not, when the hip is evaluated by a sports and regenerative medicine physician. End-stage bone-on-bone disease with severe deformity, displaced femoral neck fractures, acute mechanical labral tears in younger patients, and similar structural pathologies often warrant surgical consideration. The far more common hip complaints (gluteal tendinopathy, greater trochanteric pain, FAI without progressive cartilage damage, degenerative labral pathology, hip bursitis, early-to-moderate osteoarthritis) usually respond to a staged regenerative pathway combining Dynamic PRP+, Dynamic Stem Cell+, focused shockwave, and EMTT. We tell you which category you are in at the consult, after imaging and point-of-care diagnostic ultrasound.
What is the difference between an orthopedic surgeon and a sports and regenerative medicine doctor for the hip?
An orthopedic surgeon is trained primarily to operate. A sports and regenerative medicine physician is trained to exhaust non-surgical options before surgery. Both can evaluate a hip. The difference is the default answer. A surgeon’s toolkit centers around what can be repaired or replaced operatively. A sports and regenerative medicine physician’s toolkit centers around what can be healed, modulated, or stabilized non-operatively. For the patient who wants to keep their hip, the sports and regenerative medicine route is the right starting point.
Can a non-surgical hip doctor help me avoid replacement?
For many patients, yes. Many of our most successful hip cases arrive after a surgical consultation, told they need a total hip replacement, looking for an alternative. We routinely combine Dynamic Stem Cell+ (autologous bone marrow or adipose-derived stem cells with high-dose PRP and exosome FRP) with focused electromagnetic shockwave and EMTT to deliver meaningful pain relief, restored function, and a hip the patient keeps using for years. Even patients with bone-on-bone changes frequently respond. A small number of cases truly require surgery and we coordinate with surgical colleagues when warranted.
What hip conditions does Dr. Garg treat?
Hip osteoarthritis (mild through bone-on-bone), gluteal tendinopathy, greater trochanteric pain syndrome, femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) without progressive cartilage damage, degenerative labral tears, hip bursitis, adductor and iliopsoas tendinopathy, proximal hamstring tendinopathy, piriformis syndrome, post-surgical hip pain, and chronic hip pain after failed conservative care. The protocol is matched to the tissue at the consult using imaging plus point-of-care diagnostic ultrasound.
How do I know if I am a candidate for regenerative hip treatment?
You find out at the consult. Most patients who have been told to consider hip surgery are also candidates for the regenerative pathway. Imaging review plus point-of-care diagnostic ultrasound tells us what your hip actually needs. You leave the consult with a clear yes, no, or staged plan. Some patients decide same-day and want to get going; others take time to review the plan. Cherry financing and HSA/FSA dollars typically apply, so cost should not be the reason you settle for a stripped-down protocol.
What if surgery is the right answer for my hip?
We tell you. A clinic that never recommends surgery is not making clinical decisions. End-stage bone-on-bone destruction with severe deformity, displaced femoral neck fractures, acute mechanical labral tears in younger patients, and similar structural problems warrant surgical referral. We coordinate directly with trusted orthopedic surgical colleagues in the Boulder and Denver area when surgery is the right call. The default posture is try regenerative first; the honest posture is refer when surgery is warranted.