Chronic Pain Treatment in Parkway, MO

Chronic pain treatment in Parkway, MO. If you suffer from chronic pain, you know all too well how limiting it can be. For some of us, 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 basic activities like doing household chores, or the activities we love most, whether that be flying down the court or working in the garden.

Axes Physical Therapy is a group of 15 physical and occupational therapy centers dedicated to helping our Parkway, MO patients find lasting relief through customized chronic pain treatment plans, based on techniques that have been proven to work. If you’re finally ready to move on from chronic pain, reach out to our location most convenient for you you or request an appointment for effective chronic pain treatment.

What Is Chronic Pain?

Chronic pain is pain that lasts for longer than 12 weeks, 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 radiate through your body, and can change in severity from dull soreness to searing, intense pain.

Based on research from the CDC, in 2019 20.4% of U.S. adults dealt with chronic pain. 7.4% of adults (over a third of those who experienced chronic pain) suffered from “high-impact” chronic pain, defined as pain that, on “most days” or “every day,” affects how somebody can work or enjoy other activities. Chronic pain doesn’t just hurt you physically. Chronic pain impacts quality of life and leads to significant economic costs. It can also cause significant mental health issues and trouble sleeping.

What Causes Chronic Pain?

Pain, generally speaking, is your body’s way of telling you that something is wrong. In most cases, pain is caused by trauma, an infection, or other medical condition. “Acute pain” occurs at once, usually because of a known, underlying cause such as stubbing your toe, dental work, or surgery. It can last for anywhere from a few minutes to several weeks.

By contrast, the causes of chronic pain aren’t always easily identifiable. In some cases there may be an injury that hurts even after it’s healed . In other cases, it’s caused by a medical condition, or degenerative disease. Sometimes, there is no discernible cause for someone’s chronic pain. Common types and causes of chronic pain include:

• Arthritis and other diseases that cause joint pain — The cartilage, tendons, and ligaments in our joints can become damaged or wear down over time or due to an injury, causing chronic pain in the affected joint.
• A variety of conditions that lead to lower back pain — Almost 9 out of 10 adults will deal with 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 disc injuries that affect the nerves in the spinal column.
• Cancer pain — Tumors can lead to pain when they grow and touch other parts inside your body.
• Fibromyalgia — While experts are still trying to understand the exact cause of fibromyalgia, this refers to widespread muscle pain and tenderness.
• Neurogenic pain and psychogenic pain — In some cases, pain does not occur for a physical reason, but rather it’s caused by the nervous system, or because of psychological stress.

You can read our suggestions for easing chronic pain, and while many are effective, many people we see in Parkway, MO have felt like they tried everything and still can’t find relief. Often, physical therapy becomes their path toward lasting pain relief and getting back to the activities they love.

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

There are many possible options for chronic pain treatment in Parkway, MO, including prescription or over-the-counter drugs, chiropractic care, yoga, and regular exercise. Research demonstrates that including physical therapy into your treatment plan can lead to significant improvement. You can visit any Axes location in the Parkway area 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. Do you experience pain every day? Most days? What makes it worse? What makes it better? How is limiting you in your daily life? From there, we’ll form a team with you and your doctor to come up with a customized course of treatment aimed at returning you a comfortable daily life.

Physical therapy helps by stretching and strengthening your body. Collectively improving those aspects of the best possible mobility eases pain and enhances your daily life by allowing your body to function better, and breaking up certain body parts from sending pain messages to your brain. Depending on you, the causes of your chronic pain, your age, and your desired activity level, your treatment plan in Parkway, MO may include:

Guided Exercise

Exercise increases endorphins, your body’s homegrown, feel-good chemical messengers, which not only alleviates pain but eases related symptoms like stress and depression. A professional Parkway, 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 performed 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 involves therapeutic touch to encourage your body’s natural healing process and relaxation of muscles and joints. Your Parkway, MO physical therapist will use their hands to safely move your muscles and joints. Studies have shown that manual therapy combined with guided exercise is more effective than either technique used alone.

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

Dry Needling

Trigger point dry needling is a relatively new technique that more and more Parkway, MO physical therapists are incorporating into their treatment plans. It involves using thin, filiform needles to gently create small tears or rips in irritated muscles and connective tissue. This eases pain as it stimulates the body’s “healing mode” and encourages the flow of nutrients to the affected area.

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 prevent your brain from receiving pain messages.

Patient Education

Understanding the cause of your pain and how to deal with it in your daily life can have a considerable positive effect on your chronic pain treatment in Parkway, MO. We’ll help you learn the best way to sit, stand, and move, in addition to healthy lifestyle suggestions like diet recommendations.

Other conditions we treat in Parkway, 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 Parkway, MO

At Axes Physical Therapy in Parkway, MO, we do what we do for simple reasons: to achieve positive client experiences and help people return to to the activities they love. Whether you want to be able to hit a breakaway layup like you used to, or just want to carry the groceries in without discomfort, speak to a physical therapist in Parkway, MO today or make an appointment online for meaningful chronic pain treatment.