Some muscle or nerve pain can be bad or chronic enough to require more attentive and powerful relief than simply icing or heating the affected area. Electrotherapy is a safe, modern method that can help you ease your pain symptoms and help you heal.
What is Electrotherapy?
Electrotherapy is the process of applying light electromagnetic pulses to the body. Soft pads with electrodes are attached to the skin and an electric current is run to the affected area, with the intensity turned up high enough to help your body heal but not to high as to be painful. This method of treatment is often used in conjunction with other methods and therapies to help achieve pain relief.
How Does Electrotherapy Work?
Your muscles work through a series of electrical impulses, which is why you might shake or jerk when you receive a small electric shock. The electricity used in electrotherapy can help your chronic muscle pain by stimulating better circulation and blood flow to injured parts of your body, helping to relieve inflammation and swelling to injured areas, providing pain relief to those areas through relieving inflammation, improving the range of mobility for joints, and helping to strengthen atrophied or weakened muscles. Electrotherapy is often used in sports medicine and physical therapy to help injured muscles repair themselves.
What to Expect at My Electrotherapy Session
Electrotherapy sessions are short, roughly 15 minutes long, and will likely take place during a longer session with other treatments. Your primary care provider will have you sit or lay somewhere comfortably during the treatment. They will adhere the electrodes to your skin with soft pads and a cool gel to help the process. When they turn the electrodes on, you will feel a light electrical pulse that may sting slightly. The technician will slowly raise the intensity to a level that will help your muscles but isn’t painful. All you have to do is relax and let the treatment do its work. Once the time is up, the electrodes will be removed. You shouldn’t feel any side effects, but you might experience some skin irritation.
Contact Med One Medical Group for Your Electrotherapy
When you’re suffering from sore neck muscles, a pinched nerve, or have gotten a sports injury, contact your primary care providers at Med One for treatment. Our team is ready to help you heal and find relief from your chronic pain or sports injury. Contact us today to schedule your appointment today by calling 919-850-1300.