Chronic pain can affect the bones, tendons, and muscles and cause extreme discomfort. Disc disease, spine pain, joint pain, back pain – musculoskeletal disorders can be difficult to endure or even ignore as these require immediate attention.
One of the completely revolutionary non-invasive ways to manage this pain is shock wave therapy. Shock wave therapy uses penetrating sound energy waves to treat musculoskeletal pain. It has the advantage of being drug-free, non-intrusive, and effective.
Dr. Henry Sardar is an Extracorporeal Shock Wave Treatment specialist practicing at his pain management clinic in Brooklyn, New York. One therapy session should put your mind and body at ease and leave you feeling significantly better.
Read on to find out everything you need to know about Dr. Sardar’s Extracorporeal Shock Wave Treatment and why it may be the best procedure to diminish your physical pain and discomfort.
What is Shock Wave Therapy?
Pain is something we all have to deal with at some point in our lives. It’s inevitable and can be caused by many different situations.
The medical term for shock wave is Radial Shock Wave Therapy (RSWT) or Extracorporeal Shock Wave Therapy (ESWT). Urologists in the late 1990s developed this procedure to treat kidney stones. However, many clinical studies have found that medical practitioners can also use it to facilitate pain reduction.
Typically, Shock Wave Therapy treats unbearable pain caused by overworked long-term injuries or sports injuries.
Shock wave therapy is a procedure that eases musculoskeletal disorders by targeting the pain directly at the source. More often than not, this pain is coming from your soft tissue.
Dr. Sardar’s reputation as a practitioner who uses shock wave therapy has been growing because of the effectiveness of his treatment. So, if you’re looking for a pain clinic in New York, call us now and see how it all works. You’ll get the chance to test out the benefits of shock wave therapy and see what it can achieve.
How Does Shock Wave Therapy Work?
Shock wave therapy works on multiple levels to boost your body’s healing and regenerative abilities while at the same time relieving pain.
It targets multiple tissue components, even at a cellular level to achieve the therapeutic goals. Here’s how shock wave therapy does this:
- Promoting angiogenesis: Shock wave treatment stimulates the formation of new blood vessels through the release of certain chemotactic factors like Nitrogen Oxide in the treated tissue. This improves blood circulation, driving more nutrients and oxygen to the treated region, which allows it to heal faster.
- Anti-inflammation: Data suggests that shock waves can modulate inflammatory mediators released by your cells to decrease inflammation and suppress it.
- Stimulating tissue regeneration: Treatment with shock waves promotes metabolism and stimulates cellular multiplication and protein biosynthesis. This allows for faster and better healing after injuries.
- Boosting growth factors: High energy shock waves have been shown to boost the production and release of growth factors in the treated area. This leads to improved tissue and blood vessel formation.
- Hyperstimulating pain receptors: This is the main mechanism of pain relief after shock wave therapy. When the pain receptors and nerves in the treated area are hit with rapid powerful sub-painful shock waves, they’re overstimulated and become unable to transmit pain. They’re effectively numbed.
The groundbreaking shock wave technology is still being heavily tested in the field of pain management. Every day, doctors discover new ways this pain relief modality helps.
What Conditions Does Shock Wave Therapy Treat?
Extracorporeal Shock Wave Therapy is a musculoskeletal pain relief treatment. If you’re experiencing any tissue pain because of orthopedic injuries, shock wave treatment may be the viable option. It can be an excellent alternative if you want to avoid steroid injections or surgery.
Here are some areas that it targets:
Chronic pain diseases in the limbs or upper body:
- Low back pain
- Neck pain
- Rotator cuff tendinopathy like subacromial shoulder pain
- Bicipital tendinitis
- Tennis elbow
- Cerebral palsy
- Patellofemoral syndrome
- Knee osteoarthritis
- Arthritis
- Avascular necrosis
Avascular necrosis:
- Bony heel spurs caused by calcific deposits
- Chronic plantar fasciitis
- Chronic tendinopathies like Patellar tendinopathy and Achilles tendinopathy
Other conditions:
- Bone marrow edema
- Chronic muscle tightness
- Metabolic crisis
Am I a Suitable Candidate for Shock Wave Therapy?
Extracorporeal Shock Wave Treatment is suitable if your musculoskeletal pain has exceeded six weeks without improvement. Your primary care physician, occupational therapist, or orthopedic surgeon can usually make the diagnosis and refer you to us for management.
Afterward, Dr. Sardar will determine if you are the right candidate for shock wave therapy or other therapies like cold laser or cryotherapy.
The following may not be eligible for shock wave therapy:
- You have open wounds
- You have tumors
- You are in a hypertensive crisis
- You are pregnant
Shockwave therapy is a non-intrusive drug-free treatment that is suitable for almost anyone. Top athletes have incorporated this technology into their routines. And now since it’s available at our clinic, you can benefit from it as well.
Take a visit to our clinic, Dr. Sardar will consider your medical history and determine whether you are fit for shock wave therapy or not.
What Are The Benefits Of Shock Wave Therapy?
Whether you just want an effective alternative to surgery, or you’re looking for successful pain relief, there are many advantages that can help you decide on shock wave therapy:
- Very high success rate: Most of our patients find shock wave therapy effective. It leaves you feeling entirely comfortable and free from pain after just a few sessions.
- FDA approved: Shock wave therapy is FDA approved for many conditions and has no significant adverse side effects when performed properly.
- Great alternative to surgery: Surgical operations can be limited in scope concerning chronic pain with limited success. Surgical complications, skin incisions, scarring, and long recovery periods all make shock wave therapy the go-to procedure if you want to avoid surgery.
- Compound effect: Shockwave therapy can greatly boost your response to physiotherapy. It adds to the therapeutic effects and speeds up your recovery.
- Regenerative effects: The effects of shock waves stimulate the blood vessels, promote cellular proliferation, and intensify blood circulation. As a result, your body heals itself, reducing your pain in the process.
Book an appointment at our clinic in Brooklyn to discover the extent of the effectiveness of shock wave therapy.
How Is Shock Wave Therapy Done?
Dr. Henry Sardar uses the Piezo Shockwave 2 device. This is a top-of-the-line world-renowned device, equipped with ceramic crystals to produce focused shockwaves with high therapeutic effects.
The device is composed of a probe connected to a machine that administers high or low-energy shock waves. The Piezo Shockwave 2 emits acoustic waves or sound waves that penetrate the skin and target the source of the pain in your musculoskeletal tissues. Lubricant gel will be applied to the affected area to aid the pressure waves. The device will then be lightly run over the affected area.
The shock waves heighten the blood flow in the area and elicit biological effects that challenge your body to heal. In the process, your cells will regenerate. Within a few days of the shock wave therapy, there is tissue repair and the area will start to heal itself.
Dr. Henry Sardar will target the painful region once a week, for several weeks. Shock wave therapy only lasts a few minutes and with only minimal discomfort.
The typical response after 6-8 weeks of extracorporeal shock wave therapy is a significant improvement and relief in your musculoskeletal tissues.
Can Shock Wave Therapy Be Combined With Other Procedures?
Pain is complex and requires a multimodal approach to effectively treat. Every person responds differently to different ways of pain suppression. This is why we believe that shock wave therapy produces the best results when combined with other pain therapy procedures.
Dr. Sardar offers the following additional pain management options at his clinic in Brooklyn:
- Cold laser therapy
- Cryotherapy
- Electromagnetic Transduction Therapy (EMTT), the most advanced form of Electromagnetic field therapy (PEMF)
- TECAR Therapy
- Aqua Therapy
- Kinesio Taping
- Ultrasound-Guided Injections
- Acupuncture Therapy
- Fluoroscopically Guided Epidural Steroid Injection and Facet Injection
- Physical and Occupational Therapy
- Perineural Injection Therapy (PIT)
- Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy
What is Recovery Like After Shock Wave Therapy?
Recovery after shock wave therapy can take up to two to three days at most. It is common to expect mild inflammation, bruising, or numbness for a maximum of two days after your session.
The result of your shock wave therapy procedure depends on how your body reacts to hyperstimulation. During the healing process, we expect you to avoid any strenuous physical activity that can strain the musculoskeletal tissues, but you are free to go about your daily activities.
Shock wave therapy can have a long-term effect of pain relief for months up to a year. Some patients even report a prolonged result for more than a year!
How Much Does Shock Wave Therapy Cost?
Unfortunately, many insurance providers in the US don’t cover Extracorporeal Shock Wave Treatments. As such, many people who need this pain relief therapy haven’t been able to tap into it.
Even if your insurance doesn’t cover shock wave therapy, Dr. Henry Sardar is offering you a complimentary session right here in Brooklyn, New York. He strongly believes in the tried-and-tested procedure and has seen its effectiveness, and wants to give you the chance to try it out.
A session is enough to reduce your pain significantly, and he’s convinced you’ll be back for further treatment.
As for other services at our pain clinic, we accept most major insurance providers: New York State Medicaid, HealthFirst, Fidelis Care, Affinity Group, Metro Plus, Amerigroup, BlueCross / BlueShield Medicaid Plan, and United Health Care Community Plan.
Give us a call to learn more about our services and book an appointment that eliminates your pain in an entirely non-intrusive manner.
Shock Wave Therapy – FAQs
- Is Radial or Focused Extracorporeal Shock Wave Therapy an effective treatment? Yes! It has a high success rate for the reduction of pain. The Food and Drug Administration has approved shock wave therapy for treating chronic plantar fasciitis and some other musculoskeletal disorders. Dr. Sardar expertly provides this procedure at our pain management clinic in Brooklyn.
- What does shock wave therapy do? Shock wave therapy attacks your pain directly at the source. It entails using a device to transform compressed air into acoustic energy that triggers your cells to regenerate and heal themselves.
- How long does shock wave therapy take to work? Dr. Henry Sardar has observed that bodies react to shock wave treatment differently. Most of the time, patients notice significant improvement after their third session. Sessions are once weekly and last for only a few minutes. Is shock wave therapy painful? Absolutely not! Shock wave therapy is an entirely non-invasive procedure that takes away pain without inflicting it. Some patients only report feeling temporary localized discomfort.
- How long does shock wave therapy take to work? Dr. Henry Sardar has observed that bodies react to shock wave treatment differently. Most of the time, patients notice significant improvement after their third session. Sessions are once weekly and last for only a few minutes. Is shock wave therapy painful? Absolutely not! Shock wave therapy is an entirely non-invasive procedure that takes away pain without inflicting it. Some patients only report feeling temporary localized discomfort.
- Is shock wave therapy safe? As long as you qualify for the treatment, you do not need to be worried. However, pregnancy, tumors, open wounds, are some factors that may make you unqualified for shock wave therapy.
- What are the side effects of shock wave therapy? There are no known adverse effects of shock wave therapy. Common symptoms expected during recovery include mild bruising, numbness, or swelling. Avoid vigorous physical activity after the procedure to increase your chances of a fast recovery.
- How often should you do shock wave therapy? Dr. Henry will determine how long and how often you need shock wave therapy. This depends on your body’s reaction to hyperstimulation.
- Does a shock wave break up scar tissue? Shock wave therapy improves the appearance of some scars. Shock waves induce increased blood circulation to the targeted area, and this might help break down fibrous scar tissue.
Shock Wave Therapy – References:
Effectiveness and Safety of Shockwave Therapy in Tendinopathies
Shock wave therapy in wound healing
Extracorporeal shock wave therapy in inflammatory diseases: molecular mechanism that triggers anti-inflammatory action
Extracorporeal shock wave therapy mechanisms in musculoskeletal regenerative medicine
Shock wave therapy for rotator cuff disease with or without calcification
Resistant tennis elbow: shock-wave therapy versus percutaneous tenotomy
Efficacy of extracorporeal shock wave therapy for knee tendinopathies and other soft tissue disorders: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials
The Effectiveness of Extracorporeal Shock Wave Therapy in Lower Limb Tendinopathy: A Systematic Review
