A common fact of life is that no part of your body can hide from pain or injuries. There are many possible culprits for pain from your bones, tendons, connective tissues, or muscles.
While good habits like exercise, proper sleep, and diet help keep your body in optimal condition, accidents can happen & injuries strike.
Thankfully, shockwave therapy has proven to be an effective treatment for many painful conditions. The better question is, what can’t shockwave therapy treat!
At Coronation Physio, we have successfully treated the following conditions with shockwave therapy:
- Shin Splints
- Bone Fractures
- Carpal Tunnel
- Muscle Sprains, Muscle Pain, & Trigger Points
- Plantar Fasciitis
- Achilles Tendonitis
- Tennis Elbow & Golfer’s Elbow
- Frozen Shoulder
- Patellar Tendonitis
- Jumper’s Knee
- Stress Fractures
What Is Shockwave Therapy? How Does It Work?
Once your physiotherapist has determined your pain’s origin and root cause, a gel is applied to the area, and the shockwave device is used.
The shockwave device sends high-energy pressure waves that spread through and get absorbed by the body.
One of the main things accomplished by the pressure waves is lowering the concentration of Substance P in your body. This neurotransmitter is frequently associated with chronic & intense pain. With lower concentrations of Substance P, you’ll immediately begin to feel pain relief.
The pressure waves will also stimulate neovascularisation, which helps increase blood flow and oxygen to the affected area. This is a crucial step in helping to repair damaged tissue and will speed up healing & recovery.
Further functions of shockwave therapy include:
- Reversing Chronic Inflammation
- Stimulating Production of Collagen
- Releases Trigger Points
- Breaks up Calcification to Tendons
The physical stimulus provided by the shockwaves raises mechanotransduction leading to many positive biological responses.
Couple this with the fact that shockwave therapy is a non-invasive and non-surgical treatment; there are few musculoskeletal pains and injuries that it can’t treat.
Is Shockwave Therapy Good For Sciatica?
Sciatica is generally caused by a herniated disk or a bone spur on the spine, compressing your sciatic nerve. The sciatic nerve compression will result in inflammation, pain, and numbness.
All of which Shockwave therapy has shown to be effective at treating. Shockwave therapy is especially effective at treating sciatica when it originates from the pelvis. When the pressure waves are applied to the affected area, the tissue surrounding the pinched nerve will soften.
As a result, blood flow to the area will increase, making a recovery from sciatica much easier on the body.
Can Shockwave Therapy Be Used On The Neck?
The neck can be a sensitive and intimidating area for many patients. However, it can also be responsible for many debilitating pains and injuries: migraines, eye pain, tightness, etc.
The most common cause of these pains tends to be myofascial trigger points around the neck area.
Shockwave therapy is safe and can treat most problems surrounding the neck area.
Next Steps
If you have more questions about shockwave therapy and want to know if this is the proper treatment for you, please get in touch with us today.
Our physiotherapy team in Edmonton has years of experience treating all types of pain, and shockwave therapy is one of the tools we use!
