Therapeutic ultrasound is a treatment modality commonly used in physical therapy. It is used to provide deep heating to soft tissues in the body. These tissues include muscles, tendons, joints, and ligaments.
Book NowTherapeutic ultrasound is a treatment modality commonly used in physical therapy. It is used to provide deep heating to soft tissues in the body. These tissues include muscles, tendons, joints, and ligaments.
Ultrasound in physical therapy is not to be confused with diagnostic ultrasound, which is an ultrasound that is used to see the inside of the body, such as checking on a fetus during pregnancy.
Therapeutic ultrasound is used primarily for two different effects: the deep heating treatment and non-thermal uses.
Ultrasound is often used to provide deep heating to soft tissue structures in the body. Deep heating tendons, muscles, or ligaments increases circulation to those tissues, which is thought to help the healing process. Increasing tissue temperature with ultrasound is also used to help decrease pain.
If you have shoulder pain and have been diagnosed with a frozen shoulder, your physical therapist may use ultrasound to help improve the extensibility of the tissues around your shoulder prior to performing range of motion exercises. This may help improve the ability of your shoulder to stretch.
Ultrasound introduces energy into the body. This energy causes microscopic gas bubbles around your tissues to expand and contract rapidly, a process called cavitation. It is theorized that the expansion and contraction of these bubbles help speed cellular processes and improves the healing of injured tissue.
Two types of cavitation include stable and unstable cavitation. Stable cavitation is desired when your physical therapist is applying ultrasound to your body. Unstable cavitation can be dangerous to your body's tissues, and we ensure that this does not occur during the application of ultrasound.
There is some evidence that if you have chronic pain, you may benefit from ultrasound treatments. It is thought that the ultrasound waves help improve tissue extensibility and circulation, leading to increased mobility and, ultimately, decreased pain.
Ultrasound may not work for everyone, but it is worth a try if you have chronic, unremitting pain. Some people may argue that the benefit of ultrasound for chronic pain is due to the placebo effect. But, if it gives you relief then it is the right treatment for you.
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