Laser Therapy

Understanding Laser Therapy: What You Need to Know

Laser therapy has become a go-to treatment for pain relief and healing, and we’ve been at the forefront of this technology for about eight years. This innovative treatment is now gaining recognition in clinical guidelines, but we’re proud to have been ahead of the curve, offering it based on its success in professional sports and at Olympic training centers. Here’s everything you need to know about how it works, what it helps with, and why it might be the right option for you.

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How Does Laser Therapy Work?

Think of laser therapy as a flashlight for your cells. It uses light energy to jump-start the natural healing process in your body. When the laser is applied to the skin, the light penetrates deep into the tissues, energizing your cells like recharging a battery. This process:

- **Reduces pain** by calming overactive nerve signals.

- **Lowers inflammation** by encouraging your cells to heal damaged tissue.

- **Speeds up recovery** by improving blood flow and stimulating cellular repair.

This simple, painless process usually takes just a few minutes and doesn’t require any downtime.

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What Conditions Can Laser Therapy Help With?

Laser therapy is highly versatile and effective for a wide range of conditions. It can help with:

- **Acute injuries:** Sprains, strains, whiplash, post-surgical pain.

- **Chronic pain:** Osteoarthritis, frozen shoulder, back and neck pain, plantar fasciitis, and tendinopathy.

- **Soft tissue and nerve issues:** Myofascial pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, and chronic regional pain syndrome.

- **Bone healing:** Fractures and post-surgical recovery.

- **Nerve healing:** Accelerating regeneration after injuries.

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Leading the Way in Laser Therapy: Recognized by Clinical Guidelines

We’ve been using laser therapy for about eight years, well before it became widely recognized. Now, clinical guidelines are catching up, showing just how effective this treatment can be:

- **Low Back Pain:** Laser therapy is the **only passive modality** included in the American College of Physicians’ guidelines for treating low back pain.

- **Plantar Fasciitis:** The American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) now lists laser therapy as a recommended treatment for plantar fasciitis.

- **Neck Pain:** APTA also includes laser therapy in its clinical guidelines for neck pain treatment.

- **Rotator Cuff Syndrome:** United Healthcare recognizes laser therapy as an effective stand-alone treatment for rotator cuff syndrome—further evidence of its benefits supported by clinical research.

We were ahead of the curve, adopting laser therapy based on its success in professional sports and at Olympic training centers. We’re proud to say we’re one of the first clinics in the area to offer this innovative option, and it remains a cornerstone of our care today.

Why Choose Laser Therapy at Our Clinic?

As one of the first adopters of laser therapy in the region, we’ve built years of expertise in helping patients see real results. While we’re excited to see laser therapy gaining recognition in healthcare, you don’t have to wait for big systems to catch up—we’ve been delivering this advanced care for years.

Whether you’re dealing with an acute injury or chronic pain, laser therapy could be the solution you’ve been looking for. Reach out to us today with any questions or to schedule your first treatment.

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More information:

LASER information: Paper from Michael Hamblin, PhD Harvard. LASER in the treatment of pain: Acute orthopedic conditions such as sprains [53,54], strains, post-surgical pain, a whiplash injury [54], muscular back pain, cervical or lumbar radiculopathy [55,56], tendinitis [57,58] and chronic conditions such as osteoarthritis [59–64], rheumatoid arthritis, frozen shoulder [65], neck and back pain [56], epicondylitis [66], carpal tunnel syndrome [67,68], tendinopathy [69], fibromyalgia [70], plantar fasciitis [70], post tibial fracture surgery [9] and chronic regional pain syndrome are amenable to LASER therapy. References in this link.

Orthopedic outcomes:  According to the more than 4000 studies on pub.med.gov, it can be concluded that the majority of laboratory and clinical studies have demonstrated that Laser(LLLT and HILT) has a positive effect on acute and chronic musculoskeletal pain. The overall positive short term clinical studies in addition to strong laboratory studies should give the clinical confidence that Laser may be beneficial for many individuals suffering from musculoskeletal pain, regardless of the cause. 

Tendon Pain:  From the American Journal of Sports Medicine-Chronic Achilles Tendinopathy- Excellent results speeding up the recovery from 12 weeks down to 4 weeks. Used with eccentric exercise vs placebo laser and eccentric exercise. 

Myofasical Pain: The literature reports greater efficacy of laser over dry needling

Shoulder Pain: Subacromial impingement syndrome; SAPS

Plantar Fasciitis Ultrasound Study; Chronic Plantar Fasciitis 2x’s week for 3 weeks. 1 year follow up had awesome results with pain scores. 

Low Back Pain: HILT combined with exercise appears to be more effective in patients with CLBP than either HILT alone or placebo laser with exercise; Laser makes the list for the American College of Physicians evidence based clinical practice guidelines for low back pain; Comparison between Epidural Block vs. High Intensity Laser Therapy for Controlling Chronic Low Back Pain

Chronic Neck Pain: The combination of HILT + EX effectively increased cervical ROM, functional activity, and reduced pain after 6 weeks of treatment.  Cervical Spine Spondylosis(Arthritis) 

Knee OA: The results demonstrated strong immediate, cumulative, and long lasting (for three months) effect of high intensity laser therapy on pain in knee osteoarthritis, which gives indication that high intensity laser therapy could be a promising new possibility in the treatment of osteoarthritis of knee; HILT more effective than LLLT for KOA

Bone Healing:  Fracture healing: Laser relieved pain and improve the healing process of CBFs in the human wrist and Animal research. Animal study=no placebo bone stimulator + laser is best. Tibial Fracture. 

Nerve Healing: 9 sessions over 3 weeks speeds nerve regeneration in this study. 

Feel free to use the chat function here if you have any questions or book an appointment if you're ready to start treatment.