Chronic Pain Treatment Festus, MO | Physical Therapists Near Festus

Chronic Pain Treatment in Festus, MO

Chronic pain treatment in Festus, MO. If you suffer from chronic pain, you know all too well the debilitating effect it can have on your life. For some of us, the months or years we’ve dealt with it causes 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 tasks like doing household chores, or the activities we love most, whether that be flying down the court or painting bowls of fruit.

Axes Physical Therapy is a group of 15 physical and occupational therapy locations dedicated to helping our Festus, MO patients find lasting relief through customized chronic pain treatment plans, built on techniques that have been proven to work. If you’re finally ready to move on from chronic pain, reach out to our location nearest you or contact us online for successful chronic pain treatment.

What Is Chronic Pain?

Chronic pain is pain that lasts for longer than 3-6 months, which is generally considered to be the “normal” healing period. The pain can occur every day or every few days, can stay in one spot or radiate through your body, and can change in severity from dull soreness to stinging pain.

According to the CDC, in 2019 20.4% of adults nationwide suffered from chronic pain. 7.4% of adults (or 36.4% of those who experienced chronic pain) had “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 pain frequently will tell you that it causes far more than just physical discomfort. Chronic pain impacts quality of life and leads to higher medical expenses. It can also lead to anxiety, depression, and trouble sleeping.

Why Do I Have Chronic Pain?

Pain, in general, is your body’s way of telling you that something is wrong. Often, pain is caused by trauma, an infection, or other medical condition. “Acute pain” occurs immediately, usually because of a known, underlying cause such as falling, dental work, or surgery. The pain lasts 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, bursitis, tendinitis, and other conditions that cause joint pain — The soft tissue in our joints can become irritated or wear down from overuse or overexertion, causing chronic pain in the affected joint.
A variety of conditions that cause low back pain — Almost 9 out of 10 adults suffer from back pain at some point in their lives. Causes can be poor posture or technique, wear and tear at a job that requires physical exertion, sciatica, or a variety of disc injuries.
Cancer pain — Tumors can lead to pain when they grow and touch other parts inside your body.
Fibromyalgia — While an exact cause isn’t yet known, this refers to widespread muscle pain and tenderness.
Neurogenic pain and psychogenic pain — Sometimes, pain does not occur for a physical reason, but because there is an issue in the nervous system, or because of depression, anxiety, and/or stress.

There are many pointers for easing chronic pain, and while many can lead to greater comfort, many of our Festus, 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 meaningful pain relief and getting back to the things that are most important to them.

Chronic Pain Treatment Festus, MO | Pain Management | Physical Therapist Near Festus

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

Chronic pain can be treated through a variety of modalities in Festus, MO, including medication, chiropractic adjustments, massage, and regular exercise. Studies show that making physical therapy a part of your treatment plan is incredibly effective for relieving chronic pain. You can come to any of our 15 locations for a free screening to learn why you might be suffering from chronic pain. We’ll ask you questions to better understand how we can help you. How often do you have pain? When does it come on? When does it get better? How does your chronic pain affect you in your daily life? After your screening, we’ll work in concert with you and your doctor to develop a tailor-made course of treatment aimed at getting you back a pain-free daily life.

Physical therapy can relieve pain by increasing your strength, balance, posture, and flexibility. Collectively improving those aspects of the best possible mobility relieves pain and enhances your daily life by making your body function better, and disrupting certain body parts 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 Festus, MO may include:

Guided Exercise

Exercise boosts your body’s production of endorphins, your body’s homegrown, feel-good hormone, which not only reduces pain but helps with related symptoms like stress and depression. A qualified Festus, MO physical therapist will lead you through exercises aimed at improving your mobility without causing more pain or injury. With these exercises, we can re-train your brain to accept certain movements and positions without pain, rebuilding how your brain processes messages. We’ll also show you light exercises you can do outside of our sessions.

Manual Therapy and Soft Tissue Mobilization

Manual therapy incorporates therapeutic touch to encourage your body’s natural healing process and relaxation of the surrounding tissues. Your Festus, MO physical therapist will use their hands to gently move soft tissue. Studies have shown that manual therapy combined with guided exercise is better at treating pain than either technique used by itself.

Instrument-assisted soft tissue mobilization is similar to manual therapy, except that instead of their hands, physical therapists use specialized tools like Graston®.

Dry Needling

Trigger point dry needling is a relatively new treatment method that is becoming more popular among Festus, MO physical therapist. It involves using thin, filiform needles to gently create small tears or rips in damaged muscles, cartilage, tendons, and ligaments. This eases pain as it encourages the body to start to heal itself and stimulates the nutrient-rich blood flow to the region.

Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS)

TENS works by placing electrodes where the pain is located. It delivers low-voltage currents, which releases endorphins and stimulates nerve cells that block the transmission of pain messages.

Patient Education

Understanding the cause of your pain and how to cope with it can do wonders for your chronic pain treatment in Festus, MO. We’ll teach you appropriate posture and movement practices, as well as healthy lifestyle tips like how to keep a healthy diet.

Other services we offer in Festus, MO include:

Chronic Pain Treatment Festus, MO | Physical Therapy | Pain Management Near Festus

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

At Axes Physical Therapy in Festus, MO, our objectives are simple: to achieve positive patient outcomes and help people get back to the things they love doing most. 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 Festus, MO today or make an appointment online for lasting chronic pain treatment.