Chronic Pain Treatment Crystal City, MO

Chronic Pain Treatment in Crystal City, MO

Chronic pain treatment in Crystal City, MO. If you suffer from chronic pain, you know all too well how hard it is to express how much it limits you. Sometimes, the months or years we’ve dealt with it leads us to lose sight of how good we’re capable of feeling. At it’s worse, the pain can keep us from comfortably completing daily activities like carrying in groceries, or the activities we love most, whether that be dominating your local pickleball league or picking up your children.

Axes Physical Therapy is a collection of 15 physical therapy treatment locations committed to helping our Crystal City, MO patients find meaningful relief through personalized chronic pain treatment plans, based on techniques that have been proven to work. If you’re finally ready to move on from chronic pain, call the location most convenient for you you or schedule an appointment for effective chronic pain treatment.

What Type of Pain is Considered “Chronic”?

Chronic pain is pain that doesn’t go away after 12 weeks, which is how long it takes most people and conditions to heal. The pain can occur every day or every few days, can be localized or hit different body parts, and can change in severity from dull soreness to agonizing pain.

According to the CDC, in 2019 almost a quarter of American adults suffered from chronic pain. 7.4% of adults (over a third of those with chronic pain) suffered from “high-impact” chronic pain, which is pain that occurs on more days than not that affects how somebody can work or perform other activities. Anyone who suffers from frequent pain symptoms will tell you that it causes far more than just physical discomfort. Chronic pain reduces quality of life and leads to higher medical expenses. It can also cause significant mental health issues and insomnia.

What’s Behind Chronic Pain?

Pain, generally speaking, occurs when nerves called nociceptors detect damage somewhere in your body, and send a signal from that body part to your brain. In most cases, pain is due to a specific incident or illness. “Acute pain” occurs suddenly, usually because of a known, root cause such as burns, cuts, broken bones, dental work, or surgery. It can last for anywhere from a few minutes to months while the injury heals.

By contrast, the causes of chronic pain aren’t always easily known. In some cases there may be an injury that hurts despite the fact that, structurally, it has healed . Other times, it’s caused by a medical condition, or degenerative disease. Sometimes, there is no perceptible cause for someone’s chronic pain. Common types and causes of chronic pain include:

Arthritis and other conditions that cause joint pain — The cartilage, tendons, and ligaments in our joints can become inflamed or wear down from overuse or overexertion, causing chronic pain in the affected joint.
A variety of conditions that lead to lower back pain — Up to 84% of adults suffer from back pain at some point in their lives. Causes can be poor posture or technique, wear and tear at a physically demanding job, sciatica, or a variety of disc injuries.
Cancer pain — Tumors can lead to pain when they grow and touch tissue, nerves, or organs.
Fibromyalgia — While experts are still trying to understand the exact cause of fibromyalgia, this refers to pain that affects your muscles and joints throughout your body.
Neurogenic pain and psychogenic pain — Sometimes, there is no underlying musculoskeletal cause, but rather it’s caused by the nervous system, or because of mental health issues or your personal history.

You can check out our pointers for relieving chronic pain, and while many can help you be more active in your daily life, many of our Crystal City, MO patients have felt like they tried all of them and more and still can’t feel better. Often, physical therapy becomes their path toward lasting pain relief and getting back to the activities they love.

Chronic Pain Treatment Crystal City, MO | Pain Management | Physical Therapist Near Crystal City

Why Is Physical Therapy in Crystal City, MO a Great Option For Chronic Pain Treatment?

Chronic pain can be treated through a variety of modalities in Crystal City, MO, including medication, spinal adjustments by a chiropractor, massage therapy, and consistent exercise. Research demonstrates that including physical therapy into your treatment plan is incredibly effective for relieving chronic pain. You can visit any Axes location in the Crystal City area for a free screening to learn what might be causing your chronic pain. We’ll get to know you and your pain better. Do you experience pain every day? Most days? What makes it worse? What makes it better? How does your chronic pain affect you in your daily life? After our evaluation, we’ll form a team with you and your physician to design a personalized treatment plan aimed at getting you back to the things you love most.

Physical therapy helps by stretching and strengthening your body. Helping you reach the best possible movement health eases pain and enhances your daily life by allowing your body to function better, and breaking up any signals to your brain that something may be wrong. Depending on you, the causes of your chronic pain, how old you are, and your desired activity level, your treatment plan in Crystal City, MO may include:

Guided Exercise

Exercise increases endorphins, your body’s homegrown, feel-good chemical messengers, which not only eases pain but eases related symptoms like stress and depression. A professional Crystal City, MO physical therapist can lead you through exercises that will safely and effectively improve your mobility. With these exercises, your brain will come to understand that certain movements can be achieved without pain, restoring your brain’s trust in the rest of your body. We’ll also show you light exercises you can do outside of our sessions.

Manual Therapy and Soft Tissue Mobilization

Manual therapy involves therapeutic touch to promote healing and relaxation of muscles and joints. Your Crystal City, MO physical therapist will use their hands to safely move soft tissue. Research demonstrates that manual therapy and guided exercise together are more effective than either treatment method used by itself.

With instrument-assisted soft tissue mobilization, physical therapists use specially designed tools, like Astym®, instead of their hands, to improve tissue alignment and locate degenerative tissue and soft tissue restrictions.

Dry Needling

Trigger point dry needling is a relatively new tool that increasingly more Crystal City, MO physical therapists are incorporating into their treatment plans. It involves using thin, filiform needles to gently create small tears or rips in irritated soft tissue. This eases pain as it encourages the body to start to heal itself and stimulates the nutrient-rich blood flow to the affected body part.

Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS)

TENS works by placing electrodes over the body part that’s causing you pain. It delivers low-voltage currents, which releases endorphins and stimulates nerve cells that stop your brain from receiving pain signals.

Patient Education

Understanding why you’re experiencing pain and how to deal with it in your daily life can do wonders for your chronic pain treatment in Crystal City, MO. We’ll help you learn appropriate posture and movement techniques, as well as healthy lifestyle tips like diet recommendations.

Other conditions we treat in Crystal City, MO include:

Chronic Pain Treatment Crystal City, MO | Physical Therapy | Pain Management Near Crystal City

Call Axes Physical Therapy For Your Chronic Pain Treatment in Crystal City, MO

At Axes Physical Therapy in Crystal City, MO, we do what we do for simple reasons: to deliver positive patient experiences and help our patients return to to their best life. Whether you want to be able to hit a breakaway layup like you used to, or just want to carry the groceries in pain-free, speak to a physical therapist in Crystal City, MO today or schedule an appointment online for meaningful chronic pain treatment.