Chronic Pain Treatment in St. Clair, MO

Chronic pain treatment in St. Clair, MO. Anyone who has lived with chronic pain knows how hard it is to express the effects it has on your daily life. Sometimes, the months or years we’ve dealt with it causes us to lose sight of how good we’re capable of feeling. At it’s worse, the pain can keep us from comfortably performing basic tasks like walking up the stairs, or the activities we love doing the most, whether that be flying down the field or painting bowls of fruit.

Axes Physical Therapy is a collection of provider-owned physical therapy treatment centers committed to helping our St. Clair, MO patients find meaningful 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, call 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 lasts for longer than three months, which is how long it takes most people and conditions to heal. The pain can be constant or can come and go, can stay in one spot or radiate through your body, and can range from dull soreness to stinging pain.

Based on research from the CDC, in 2019 almost a quarter of adults nationwide had chronic pain. 7.4% of adults (over a third of those who experienced chronic pain) had “high-impact” chronic pain, which is persistent pain limits work or life activities. Anyone who suffers from frequent pain symptoms will tell you that it causes far more than just physical discomfort. Chronic pain impacts quality of life and leads to significant economic costs. It can also cause significant mental health issues and insomnia.

Why Do I Have Chronic Pain?

Pain, in general, is your body’s way of telling you that something is wrong. Often, 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 moment to several weeks.

By contrast, people can experience chronic pain for several reasons. Sometimes an injury continues to cause pain after the tissue is repaired . Other times, it’s caused by an illness, 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 irritated or wear down over time or due to an injury, causing joint pain.
• Numerous different conditions that lead to lower 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 work, sciatica, or a variety of disc injuries.
• Cancer pain — Tumors can cause 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, 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 read our suggestions for relieving chronic pain, and while many can lead to greater comfort, many people we see in St. Clair, MO have felt like they tried all of them and more and still can’t find relief. Often, physical therapy is the strategy that finally gets them relief and returns them to the activities they love.

How Do Physical Therapists in St. Clair, MO Help With Chronic Pain Treatment?

Chronic pain can be treated through a variety of methods in St. Clair, MO, including medication, chiropractic care, massage, and consistent exercise. Research demonstrates that making physical therapy a part of your treatment plan can lead to significant improvement. You are welcome to visit any Axes location in the St. Clair area for a free screening to better understand 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? What makes it worse? What makes it better? How is limiting you in your daily life? After your screening, we’ll form a team with you and your doctor to come up with a personalized treatment plan aimed at getting you back to the things you love most.

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

Guided Exercise

Exercise releases endorphins, your body’s homegrown, feel-good chemical messengers, which not only alleviates pain but eases any psychological stress you feel because of your pain. A qualified St. Clair, MO physical therapist can help you perform exercises aimed at improving your mobility without causing further pain or injury. With these exercises, we can re-train your brain to accept certain movements and positions without pain, restoring 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 involves therapeutic touch to encourage your body’s natural healing process and relaxation of muscles and joints. Your St. Clair, MO physical therapist will use their hands to safely put pressure on soft tissue. Studies have shown that manual therapy combined with guided exercise is better at treating pain than either treatment method used by itself.

With instrument-assisted soft tissue mobilization, physical therapists use specialized tools, like HawkGrips®, instead of their hands, to smooth out tissue and locate degenerative tissue and soft tissue restrictions.

Dry Needling

Trigger point dry needling is a relatively new treatment method that more and more St. Clair, 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, cartilage, tendons, and ligaments. This eases pain as it encourages the body to start to heal itself and encourages the flow of nutrients to the region.

Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS)

TENS works by placing electrodes where the pain is located. It sends low-voltage electrical currents to release endorphins and awakens nerve cells that block the transmission of pain messages.

Patient Education

Understanding the cause of your pain and how to cope with it can have a significant positive effect on your chronic pain treatment in St. Clair, 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 St. Clair, MO include:

• Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Treatment
• Sciatica Treatment
• 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

Call Axes Physical Therapy For Your Chronic Pain Treatment in St. Clair, MO

At Axes Physical Therapy in St. Clair, MO, we do what we do for simple reasons: to deliver positive client outcomes and help people return to to their best life. Whether you miss being 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 St. Clair, MO today or make an appointment online for meaningful chronic pain treatment.