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Ultrasound Treatments
How can Ultrasound help you?
Ultrasound has a long history of therapeutic use by physical therapists, chiropractors & sport medicine professionals. And the safety & effectiveness of ultrasound as a pain relief modality has been scientifically established. Now, technological advances have made available ultrasound machines for home use.
Therapeutic ultrasound is a treatment modality commonly used in physical therapy. It is used to provide deep heating to soft tissues in the body to treat chronic pain and promote tissue healing. These tissues include muscles, tendons, joints, and ligaments. Ultrasound is too often confused with diagnostic ultrasound, which is an ultrasound that is used to see the inside of the body.
Benefits
Historically, ultrasound in physical therapy proved to be highly effective in improving overall blood circulation and faster healing than traditional methods. While ultrasound therapy is not effective for all kinds of chronic pain conditions, it is certainly very helpful to heal the following:
- Osteoarthritis
- Limb Sprains
- Myofascial pain
- Pain caused by scars
Any soft-tissue injury in the body can be referred to as ultrasound therapy. In fact, ultrasound can help with back pain, neck pain, rotator cuff tears, knee meniscus tears, or sprains, muscle strains and tears, frozen shoulder, ligament injuries, joint contracture or tightness etc.
By increasing blood flow, ultrasound therapy securely reduces local swelling and chronic inflammation and according to some medical studies, also promotes bone fracture healing. However, ultrasound is a passive treatment. Active exercise and self- care rehab is more effective than ultrasound merely, yet it remains to be popular among fields like sports and medicine.
Types of Ultrasound
The type of ultrasound therapy used depends on condition. If it’s have myofascial pain or had a muscle strain or sprain that has not healed, therapist will likely use thermal ultrasound therapy. If your pain is caused by scar tissue or swelling, such as with Arthritis, you may benefit more from mechanical ultrasound therapy.
The difference between thermal and mechanical ultrasound therapy is the rate at which the sound waves penetrate the tissues.
Thermal Ultrasound Therapy(1MHz): Thermal ultrasound therapy uses a continuous transmission of sound waves. The sound waves cause microscopic vibrations in the deep tissue molecules, increasing heat and friction. The warming effect encourages healing in the soft tissues by increasing the metabolism at the level of the tissue cells. This happens as a result of the ‘deep heating effect’ in the body.
Mechanical Ultrasound Therapy(3MHz): Mechanical ultrasound therapy uses pulses of sound waves to penetrate tissues. Besides having a minor warming effect on the tissues, this technique also causes expansion and contraction in the tiny gas bubbles of the soft tissues. This helps to decrease the inflammatory response, reducing tissue swelling and thus decreasing pain. This process is called ‘Cavitation’.
