Can Shockwave Therapy For Back Pain Help With Car Accident Injuries?

May 18, 2022

Many people prefer non-invasive medical treatments that don’t require prescription drugs to address their health concerns. Fortunately, many options exist. Shockwave therapy is an excellent treatment for pain, and many healthcare providers use it to provide relief from various types of pain to their patients.

What Is Shockwave Therapy?

Many people experience pain after automobile crashes, underlying systemic disease, or suffer from chronic pain due to other conditions. Medical researchers have developed several types of treatment to address this the pain patients endure, including shockwave therapy.

Shockwave therapy is a clinical practice where medical personnel direct high-energy acoustic sound waves toward affected areas of your body. A transmitter focuses compressed air, using the produced kinetic energy to penetrate soft tissue at a depth of up to several inches into your body. Chronic low back pain, acute low back pain, and reduced dynamic balance ability due to back conditions are often addressed through shockwave therapy.

Randomized clinical trial data suggest that shock wave therapy can reduce back pain as reported through various pain self-efficacy questionnaire results and other measures. Clinical practice guidelines for administering shock wave therapy are published by the International Society for Medical Shockwave Treatment (ISMST).

There are different types of shock wave therapy, like extracorporeal shock wave therapy and radial extracorporeal shock wave therapy. Extracorporeal shockwave therapy (EST) is a noninvasive technique for breaking up scar tissue, and radial extracorporeal shock wave therapy (RESWT), or radial shock wave therapy, is a kind of ESWT that has a different energy flux density and covers a larger area and is often suited to treating chronic nonspecific low back pain.

While that might sound alarming, many patients say that the feeling of shockwave therapy is similar to getting a massage. It’s not uncomfortable and can even provide relaxation. Individual treatment sessions usually last between 20 and 30 minutes. You may need several regular treatments to complete this regimen. Healing can continue for up to twelve weeks after your sessions end.

The effects aren’t necessarily immediate, but a completed regimen of shockwave therapy can produce excellent results. After completing shockwave therapy treatments, most patients experience a reduction in pain levels, an increase in mobility, and feeling healthier overall.

As the sound waves enter your soft tissue, they begin to stimulate your metabolism. This improves blood flow to affected areas and can interrupt pain receptors.

Your body depends on nutrients found in your blood. Without these nutrients, your body can’t heal properly. As many situations restrict blood flow, they need treatment. Shockwave therapy is an effective way to improve your blood circulation. In turn, your body can repair itself faster.

Other benefits of shockwave therapy include:

A reduction of inflammation in treated areas
Creation of new blood vessels
Breaking up calcium build-up
Accelerated collagen production
Decreasing substance P levels, which reduces pain
Overstimulating nerve endings, reducing pain

Shockwave therapy can treat kidney stones, erectile dysfunction, and other conditions, but physicians typically use shockwave therapy for various musculoskeletal disorders. These disorders can produce significant amounts of pain, and car accident injuries can cause several of them.

What Are Musculoskeletal Disorders?

Many health problems fall under the musculoskeletal disorder umbrella. They affect bones, joints, muscles, fascia, and other soft tissues such as tendons and ligaments. Soft tissues collectively support and connect surrounding body elements; blood vessels, fat, nerves, and skin contain soft tissues.

People can experience several common musculoskeletal disorders, including:

Bone fractures
Carpal tunnel syndrome
Fibromyalgia
Muscle or tendon sprains and ligament strains
Osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis
Plantar fasciitis
Tendonitis
Whiplash

These conditions can produce temporary or chronic pain, from mild discomfort to debilitating anguish. For instance, those with fibromyalgia can go days relatively pain-free but suddenly find themselves in excruciating pain. That vicious cycle can directly affect daily activities and mental health and produce unbearable discomfort.

People in pain want effective relief. They might try a myriad of treatments to find one that works. Shockwave therapy can effectively relieve pain for these and other conditions.

If your physician doesn’t offer shockwave therapy, consult us at Metro Healthcare Partners. We will assess your current physical condition and pain levels, diagnose their causes, and prepare a comprehensive treatment plan that may include shockwave therapy.

Can Shockwave Therapy Treat Car Accident Injuries?

Injuries resulting from car crashes are often severe and very painful, requiring weeks and months of recovery. Those suffering from car collision injuries need pain relief in addition to other kinds of medical treatments.

Rather than going to several healthcare professionals, finding a clinic that offers various forms of treatment for your injuries is beneficial. With your treatment facilitated in one office, that provider can plan and implement a tailor-made regimen for you.

Metro Healthcare Partners provides many types of treatments for their patients, all designed to work cohesively to improve health and reduce pain. We perform shockwave therapy as a solution for car accident victims and can offer other avenues as well.

What Kinds of Common Car Accident Injuries Respond Well to Shockwave Therapy?

Those involved in automobile accidents can face a multitude of various injuries. Common car wreck injuries include:

Back and neck injuries
Broken bones
Bruising and contusions
Concussions
Internal bleeding and injury, including organ damage
Spinal cord damage
Traumatic brain injuries
Whiplash

Several of these injuries can benefit from shockwave therapy.

Broken Bones

People with broken bones experience associated pain, along with physical impairments. Unfortunately, broken bones take time to heal.

Shockwave therapy can help bones to regenerate more quickly than if you don’t receive that treatment. These treatments stimulate your body’s metabolism and specific growth factors. The faster your bones heal, the sooner you’ll get relief from the pain.

Bruises and Contusions

Blunt force against an area of your body can cause bruises and contusions, which are larger versions of bruises. When this happens, the skin and underlying body parts sustain damage. Small blood vessels near the surface bleed, causing discoloration of the skin. Bruises are often very deep and can even affect bones.

Bruises are often extremely painful, especially if the affected area is touched. Shockwave therapy can help reduce or alleviate some of the pain caused by bruising.

Internal Injuries

The sometimes-violent motions that take place during a car collision can force your body to come into contact with your car’s structure, loose items in your vehicle, or even other passengers. Any of these impacts can cause internal injuries.

Examples of internal injuries include:

Abdominal aorta aneurysm
Brain bleeds and bruising
Broken ribs
Internal bleeding
Organ damage
Pneumothorax, or lung puncture
Ruptured spleen

While some of these injuries typically require surgery, others can benefit from shockwave therapy. Ask your healthcare provider if it might help your condition.

Muscle Pain

Many of the common car accident injuries create muscle pain. Your muscles can become tense and displaced, causing additional pain. Tight muscles respond well to shockwave therapy; treatments can reduce pain, restore mobility and promote better muscular health.

Whiplash

In many car collisions, your body is subjected to sudden and extreme shifting in position at high speeds. The impact can force your head to be thrown back and forth quickly, sometimes causing whiplash.

Whiplash is a muscular injury that affects your neck and can continue to develop for several hours after the initial impact. First responders routinely place cervical collars on injured accident victims, partially to prevent further damage and pain related to whiplash. Patients may need to continue wearing these collars while their neck heals.

Shockwave therapy can provide pain relief from whiplash and help the affected muscles heal faster.

Can You Get Shockwave Therapy for Back Pain?

Whether your back pain results from a car accident, repetitive motion, heavy lifting, or other causes, shockwave therapy for back pain is a viable treatment option. Your back contains multiple bones, nerves, joints, discs, muscles, fascia, organs, and other vital structures.

Many people aren’t familiar with fascia, but it can significantly affect your back and neck pain levels. Fascia is a soft tissue that surrounds muscles, providing support to enhance movement. Injuries often cause the fascia to thicken, mimicking muscle tension.

Tendons connect muscles to bones, while ligaments connect at least two bones. Tendons and ligaments are comprised of soft tissues and can benefit from shockwave therapy.

Numerous ligaments, muscles, and tendons work together to protect your spinal cord. An automobile collision can damage all of them.

Shockwave therapy can penetrate painful or bruised areas to produce pain relief and boost your body’s natural healing process. It can also help to loosen fascia, tendons, and ligaments.

Is Shockwave Therapy Effective on Its Own?

Although healthcare providers can use shockwave therapy as a stand-alone procedure, it’s usually part of a broader treatment plan. Patients who benefit from shockwave therapy typically receive other kinds of treatments at the same time.

Some treatment regimens that work well in conjunction with shockwave therapy include:

Chiropractic adjustments
Custom orthotics or other braces
Physical therapy

Why Should You Choose Metro Healthcare Partners?

If you sustained injuries in a car accident or have other sources of pain, we at Metro Healthcare Partners want to help you. Our goal is to provide each of our patients with comprehensive, effective care using one or more disciplines focused on helping you to heal.

We provide advanced treatment technologies similar to those found in hospitals, but our office doesn’t have a clinical feel. We believe that you’ll heal better in comfortable surroundings, attended by our award-winning staff.

The Metro Healthcare Partners physician roster includes:

Any of us will answer the question, “what is shockwave therapy,” in detail.

All of our patients receive coordinated compassionate care as we implement a treatment plan customized to address their specific needs. We will support you during your treatments and rehabilitation from your injuries.

We offer evening and weekend hours at our conveniently located office to better serve you. Our doctors accept no-fault insurance, PIP (Personal Injury Protection), workers’ compensation, and most major medical plans.

Call us at (718) 568-5239 or send us a message. We’ll evaluate your condition to see if shockwave therapy is right for you.