A broken or fractured bone generally takes 6 to 8 weeks to heal significantly. Children's bones tend to heal faster than adult bones. Your doctor will determine when the bone is healed enough to bear weight. When a bone breaks, pain is the body’s natural reaction. Both the injuries to the soft tissue and fracture can produce pain. Soft tissue refers to the ligaments, nerves, muscles, tendons, and blood vessels that surround the bone. When the soft tissue around the fracture is injured the result can be swelling, bruising, pain, and redness. • Acute pain occurs when the bone has broken. • Sub-acute pain usually occurs when the bone and soft tissue begin to heal. • Chronic pain is ongoing pain that appears long after the fracture and soft tissue have healed. Immediately after a bone breaks you might experience acute pain, followed by sub-acute pain while your bone heals, but you may not have chronic pain at all. Other individuals may only experience acute pain. It is also possible to have a fracture without any pain as many people have had a spinal fracture and were not aware they had one.