Chronic Pain Treatment in Dittmer, MO

Chronic pain treatment in Dittmer, MO. If you suffer from chronic pain, you know all too well the debilitating effect it can have on your life. Sometimes, the months or years we’ve dealt with it leads us to forget what it feels like to live a pain-free life. At it’s worse, the pain can keep us from comfortably completing daily activities like carrying in groceries, or the things we love best, whether that be sprinting down the field or playing with your grandchildren.

Axes Physical Therapy is a collection of 15 physical and occupational therapy locations devoted to helping our Dittmer, MO patients find meaningful relief through customized chronic pain treatment plans, based on techniques that have been demonstrated to work. To get back to a pain-free daily life, reach out to the location most convenient for you you or contact us online for safe chronic pain treatment.

What Is Chronic Pain?

Chronic pain is pain that doesn’t go away after 3-6 months, which is generally considered to be the “normal” healing period. The pain can be constant or can come and go, can stay in one spot or hit different body parts, and can change in severity from stiffness to stinging pain.

According to the CDC, in 2019 20.4% of adults nationwide had chronic pain. 7.4% of adults (over a third of those who experienced chronic pain) suffered from “high-impact” chronic pain, which is pain that occurs on more days than not that limits work or life activities. Chronic pain doesn’t just hurt you physically. Chronic pain reduces quality of life and leads to significant economic costs. It can also lead to anxiety, depression, and insomnia.

What’s Behind Chronic Pain?

Pain, in general, occurs when nerves called nociceptors detect damaged tissue, and send a signal from that body part to your brain. In most cases, pain is due to trauma, an infection, or other medical condition. “Acute pain” occurs at once, usually because of a discernible, underlying cause such as burns, cuts, broken bones, dental work, or surgery. It can last for anywhere from a moment to months while the injury heals.

By contrast, people can experience chronic pain for several reasons. Sometimes an injury continues to cause pain even after it’s healed . In other cases, it’s caused by an illness, or degenerative disease. Sometimes, the pain isn’t caused by a specific condition, but rather from things like poor posture, obesity, or overexertion. Common types and causes of chronic pain include:

• Arthritis and other conditions that cause joint pain — The soft tissue in our joints can become damaged or wear down from overuse or overexertion, causing chronic pain in the affected joint.
• Numerous different conditions that cause lower back pain — Up to 84% of adults will deal with back pain eventually. Causes can be poor posture or technique, repetitive motions at a job that requires physical exertion, sciatica, or a variety of disc injuries.
• Cancer pain — Tumors can cause pain when they push up against 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 — In some cases, 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 lead to greater comfort, many people we see in Dittmer, MO tell us that they have tried all of them and more and still can’t feel better. Often, physical therapy becomes their path toward meaningful pain relief and getting back to the things that are most important to them.

How Do Physical Therapists in Dittmer, MO Help With Chronic Pain Treatment?

Chronic pain can be treated through a variety of methods in Dittmer, MO, including prescription or over-the-counter medications, chiropractic adjustments, massage therapy, and regular exercise. Research demonstrates that incorporating physical therapy into your treatment plan can lead to considerable improvement. You are welcome to visit any of our 15 locations for a free screening to learn what might be causing your chronic pain. We’ll ask you questions to better understand how we can help you. How often do you have pain? What makes it worse? What makes it better? How does your chronic pain affect you in your daily life? From there, we’ll work in tandem with you and your doctor to design a tailor-made treatment plan aimed at getting you back a pain-free daily life.

Physical therapy can relieve pain by increasing your strength, balance, posture, and range of motion. Helping you reach the best possible mobility relieves pain and improves your quality of life by making your body work better, and interrupting certain nerves from sending pain messages to your brain. Depending on you, the causes of your chronic pain, your age, and the activity level you wish to get back to, your treatment plan in Dittmer, MO may include:

Guided Exercise

Exercise releases endorphins, your body’s natural, feel-good hormone, which not only eases pain but helps with related symptoms like stress and depression. A qualified Dittmer, MO physical therapist will help you perform exercises aimed at improving your mobility without causing more pain or injury. With these exercises, your brain will come to understand that certain movements can be achieved without pain, rebuilding your brain’s trust in the rest of your body. Through guided exercise, we’ll be able to teach you safe exercises you can do on your own.

Manual Therapy and Soft Tissue Mobilization

Manual therapy incorporates therapeutic touch to promote healing and relaxation of the surrounding tissues. Your Dittmer, MO physical therapist will use their hands to gently move soft tissue. Studies have shown that manual therapy combined with guided exercise is more effective than either treatment method used by itself.

With instrument-assisted soft tissue mobilization, physical therapists use specialized tools, like Graston®, 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 technique that more and more Dittmer, MO physical therapists are incorporating into their treatment plans. It involves using thin, filiform needles to penetrate damaged muscles and connective tissue. This eases pain as it encourages the body to start to heal itself and stimulates the flow of nutrients to the region.

Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS)

TENS works by placing electrodes on the skin near where you are experiencing pain. It delivers low-voltage currents, which releases endorphins and stimulates nerve cells that prevent your brain from receiving pain signals.

Patient Education

Understanding why you’re experiencing pain and how to cope with it can do wonders for your chronic pain treatment in Dittmer, MO. We’ll teach you appropriate posture and movement practices, as well as healthy lifestyle tips like diet recommendations.

Other services we offer in Dittmer, MO include:

• Sports Medicine
• Hand Pain Physical Therapy
• Foot & Ankle Pain Treatment
• Hip Pain Treatment
• Plantar Fasciitis Treatment
• Stroke Rehabilitation
• Hip Replacement Physical Therapy
• Workers Comp' Physical Therapy
• Migraine Relief
• Sprain and Strain Treatment

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

At Axes Physical Therapy in Dittmer, MO, we do what we do for simple reasons: to achieve positive client experiences and help people get back to the activities they love. Whether you want to be able to run across the tennis court like you used to, or just want to carry the groceries in pain-free, speak to a physical therapist in Dittmer, MO today or schedule an appointment online for lasting chronic pain treatment.