What is Shockwave Therapy?

Shockwaves are a natural phenomenon occurring in nature when lightning strikes or a plane exceeds the speed of sound. In medicine it has been used to break up kidney stones without the need for surgery for 40 years. Over 25 years ago it was discovered shockwaves could cause bones that wouldn’t heal to spontaneously heal again. Scientists realized that shockwaves, a special type of sound, were able to cause bone, tendon, ligament and other cells to regenerate and finish healing in even the oldest of chronic injuries.

Until then, injuries like plantar fasciitis, tennis elbow, jumpers knee, hip bursitis, shin splints, stress fractures, calcific tendonitis deposits and others were often difficult to impossible to heal. Shockwave has emerged as one of the only treatments that reliably makes tendon to bone or ligament to bone junction injuries heal. The high-energy acoustic waves non-surgically penetrate the soft tissues, targeting damaged areas, stimulating new blood vessel growth and regeneration in bones, tendon and ligaments.

Benefits

  • Non-Surgical Treatment
  • No Side Effects
  • Accelerates Healing
  • Affordable
  • Very High Success Rate
  • Drug-Free Treatment
  • Only 3 to 5 Visits Required

Is Shockwave Right for Me?

Shockwave Therapy has shown to be effective in the treatment of the following conditions:

  • All Tendon-to-Bone Junction Injuries
  • Any Tendonitis & Tendonosis
  • Plantar Fasciitis & Plantar Fasciosis
  • Chronic Muscle Pain
  • Trigger Points
  • Tennis Elbow
  • Calicific Tendinitis
  • Rotator Cuff Injuries
  • Bursitis
  • Achilles Tendonopathy
  • Jumpers Knee
  • Shin Splints

If you’re wondering about Shockwave Therapy, or are suffering from an injury and frustrated with the treatment options you’ve been presented with, give Chilliwack Sports Medicine Clinic a call and speak to a knowledgeable treatment provider about Shockwave Therapy.

 

Physical effects of Radial Pressure Waves

Radial pressure waves offer a non invasive treatment solution for long term insertion and soft tissue pathologies. Local treatment of the affected area will enhance and reset the healing pattern. Today there are several working hypotheses for the physical effects of radial pressure waves:

  • Shockwaves create increased cell membrane permeability metabolically which allows old, damaged and weakened cells to be removed and replaced with healthy viable cells.
  • And neurologically, Shockwaves produce a counter irritation at the dorsal root ganglion actually modulating the amount of nocioceptive activity and decreasing the pain signal and actually closing the theoretical pain gate.
  • Vascular changes such as increased blood circulate in tissues which increases the oxygen content and significantly reduce the concentration of carbon dioxide in the tissue which may stimulate the healing process.
  • Based on the hypothesis towards associative pain memory (Wess), afferent pain signals are transmitted through the central nervous system by multiple synaptic junctions which eventually cause efferent fibers to control muscle tone. The reflex mechanism works just like a regulatory circuit.