Types of Physiotherapy Treatments for Injury Care

If you have suffered an injury, you may need additional support to recover fully and get your life back to how it was before. Depending on the type of injury that you have sustained, you may need physical therapy, or physiotherapy, to get back on your feet. If you have suffered an injury to your musculoskeletal system – the network of bones, muscles, and connective tissues that give our body shape and movement – you may be recommended for physiotherapy.

There are a variety of physiotherapy treatments that can help you to recover, heal, and get back to normal following an injury. Let’s explore them in a little more detail.

Manual Therapies

Manual therapies are usually the first course of treatment recommended for injury care. As their names suggest, these therapies involve the hands-on manipulation of the body by your physical therapy professional. Every patient recovery program is different, but the most common aspects of manual therapies include:

Joint mobilization: This therapy focuses on relieving pressure and inflammation affecting the joints so that the patient can enjoy a restored range of motion

Physiotherapy instrument mobilization (PIM): This technique uses a hand-held piece of equipment that is used along the spine to help reduce pain and increase patient mobility

Stretching: Stretching the body properly is one of the most effective techniques for loosening tight muscles and connective tissues that could be causing pain, preventing movement, and stopping the body from healing properly

Neurodynamics: This modern technique works by evaluating the nerves and neural pathways in order to identify any areas where nerves may be damaged or impeded in some way. Corrective exercises and spinal adjustments can then be used to relieve pressure on the nerves, enabling them to work more efficiently. This will help in the treatment of injury and is important to prevent further damage

Exercise Therapy

Exercise therapy is a very popular treatment for injury care and prevention. As you’ve probably guessed from the name, exercise therapy involves performing specific exercises with the goal of healing the body and preventing future injuries. It usually involves a combination of strength training, cardiovascular work to build your heart health and boost your circulation, and posture training. The latter is particularly important since many musculoskeletal injuries occur because of or are impeded further by poor posture.

Electrotherapy

Many people still think of electrotherapy as being a harsh, shock-based treatment, but modern electrotherapy couldn’t be any further from this technique. Instead, it is a gentle, non-invasive, and highly effective therapy that can be used to accelerate the natural healing process and reduce pain from the injuries you have sustained.

Electrotherapy works by stimulating the nerves and muscles of the targeted area. This has several effects:

• Electrotherapy heats the cells within the body which stimulates your circulation, increasing blood flow and the delivery of oxygen and nutrients to the area which requires healing, thus accelerating the process
   

• It sends out electrical impulses that interfere with the body’s pain signals, helping to reduce the discomfort that you are experiencing
   

• The therapy also stimulates the release of natural pain-relieving endorphins
   

• By stimulating the cells of the target area, electrotherapy can reduce inflammation and its associated discomfort, and increase the production of collagen (to restore connective tissues)

If you would like more information about types of physiotherapy treatments for injury care, please get in touch with our team at Atlantic Chiropractic Associates in Milford, Georgetown, and Lewes, Delaware, by calling (302) 309-9900 today.