Chronic Pain Treatment Paulina Hills, MO | Physical Therapists Near Paulina Hills

Chronic Pain Treatment in Paulina Hills, MO

Chronic pain treatment in Paulina Hills, MO. Anyone who has lived with chronic pain knows how limiting it can be. Sometimes, the months or years we’ve dealt with it leads us to lose sight of 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 walking up the stairs, or the activities we love best, whether that be dominating your local flag football league or working in the garden.

Axes Physical Therapy is a collection of provider-owned physical therapy and rehabilitation centers committed to helping our Paulina Hills, MO patients achieve positive outcomes through custom-tailored chronic pain treatment plans, built on techniques that have been demonstrated to work. If you’re finally ready to move on from chronic pain, reach out to the location most convenient for you you or request an appointment for safe chronic pain treatment.

What Is Chronic Pain?

Chronic pain is pain that doesn’t go away after 3-6 months, which is how long it typically takes pain to go away after an injury, surgery, or illness. 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 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 with chronic pain) had “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 higher medical expenses. It can also lead to anxiety, depression, and insomnia.

What’s Behind Chronic Pain?

Pain, generally speaking, occurs when nerves called nociceptors detect damaged tissue, and send a signal from that body part to your brain. Often, pain is due to trauma, an infection, or other medical condition. “Acute pain” occurs suddenly, 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. In some cases there may be an injury that hurts after the tissue is repaired . Other times, it’s caused by a medical condition, or happens as our bodies weaken with age. Sometimes, there is no observable 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 low back pain — Up to 84% of adults suffer from back pain eventually. Causes can be poor posture or technique, repetitive motions at a job that requires physical exertion, sciatica, or disc injuries that impinge on the nerves in the spinal column.
Cancer pain — Tumors can lead to pain when they push up against bones, your spine, or other tissue.
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 because there is an issue in the nervous system, or because of psychological stress.

There are many suggestions for easing chronic pain, and while many can lead to greater comfort, many of our Paulina Hills, MO patients tell us that they have tried all of them and more and still can’t find relief. Often, physical therapy becomes their path toward lasting pain relief and getting back to a pain-free daily life.

Chronic Pain Treatment Paulina Hills, MO | Pain Management | Physical Therapist Near Paulina Hills

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

Chronic pain can be treated through a variety of methods in Paulina Hills, MO, including medication, chiropractic care, massage therapy, and regular exercise. Studies show that making physical therapy a part of your treatment plan is incredibly effective for relieving chronic pain. You are welcome to come to any of our 15 locations for a free screening to learn why you might be experiencing 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 is limiting you in your daily life? From there, we’ll work in concert with you and your physician to design a personalized course of treatment aimed at getting you back a pain-free daily life.

Physical therapy can relieve pain by stretching and strengthening your body. Helping you achieve optimal mobility eases pain and improves your quality of life by allowing your body to work 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 Paulina Hills, MO may include:

Guided Exercise

Exercise increases endorphins, your body’s homegrown, feel-good chemical messengers, which not only alleviates pain but helps with related symptoms like stress and depression. A professional Paulina Hills, MO physical therapist will guide through exercises aimed at improving your mobility without causing further pain or injury. With guided exercise, your brain will come to understand that certain movements can be performed without pain, restoring how your brain processes messages. 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 muscles and joints. Your Paulina Hills, MO physical therapist will use their hands to gently manipulate soft tissue. Studies have shown that manual therapy combined with guided exercise is better at treating pain than either technique used by itself.

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

Dry Needling

Trigger point dry needling is a relatively new technique that is becoming more popular among Paulina Hills, MO physical therapist. 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 encourages 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 signals.

Patient Education

Understanding the cause of your pain and how to deal with it in your daily life can do wonders for your chronic pain treatment in Paulina Hills, MO. We’ll help you learn appropriate posture and movement practices, in addition to healthy lifestyle suggestions like how to keep a healthy diet.

Other conditions we treat in Paulina Hills, MO include:

Chronic Pain Treatment Paulina Hills, MO | Physical Therapy | Pain Management Near Paulina Hills

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

At Axes Physical Therapy in Paulina Hills, MO, we do what we do for simple reasons: to achieve positive client outcomes and help our patients return to to the things they love doing most. Whether you miss being able to run across the tennis court like you used to, or just want to walk up the stairs without discomfort, speak to a physical therapist in Paulina Hills, MO today or make an appointment online for lasting chronic pain treatment.

Paulina Hills, MO