Services and Treatment
What To Expect During Your First Session
During your first visit, your therapist will perform an evaluation to learn more about you and your condition. Your therapist then creates a specialized therapy program based on your physician’s recommendations and the results of the evaluation. Your therapist takes into account your expectations and goals, your age and physical abilities.
If you are in pain at your first visit, you should expect your therapist to provide a treatment that gives you pain relief. To achieve this, your therapist may provide modalities such as heat,
electrical stimulation, and procedures like manual therapy involving soft tissue or joint mobilization. Your therapist will also provide you with self care instructions in proper positioning to control your pain symptoms.
Exercise is almost always an important part of your program. You will usually exercise in our clinic and we will give you exercises to do at home to help speed up your recovery.
Following your first visit, your therapist will send a report to your physician regarding your evaluation and program plan. Before you return to your doctor, your therapist will send an updated report describing your progress in therapy.
Evaluations typically take 45 minutes to an hour. Succeeding visits take at least 30 minutes.
Please wear appropriate clothes for exercise and consider loose clothing to allow exposure of painful areas to allow treatment by your therapist.
Physical therapists have many rehab tools available, some specific aspects of physical therapy which you may encounter include:
Biofeedback
Biofeedback is a useful tool for strengthening a weakened muscle or muscle group. Essentially the machine allow you to monitor how well a particular muscle is functioning, so you can better understand how to help strengthen the affected muscles. It is also used to promote muscle relaxation by making you aware of your specific muscle activity and allowing you to control your muscle.
Stretching
Stretching is vital to maintain good range of motion around a joint. If a patient has stiff joints, normal activities such as opening a jar or climbing stairs can be severely affected. By proper stretching, these functions can be preserved. After an injury or surgery, scar tissue forms, and soft-tissue contracts; this is when stretching is most important.
Strengthening
Strengthening exercises are performed to help the patient improve the function of their muscles. The goal is to improve strength, increase endurance, and maintain or improve range of motion.
Ice and Heat Therapy
Ice and heat are useful to warm up and cool off muscles. In addition, these modalities can stimulate blood flow and decrease swelling. These can be important aspects of the therapeutic process.
Ultrasound
Ultrasound uses high frequency sound waves (not within the range we can hear) to stimulate the deep tissues within the body. By passing an ultrasound probe over the body, deep tissues are stimulated by the vibration of the sound wave. This leads to warming and increased blood flow to these tissues.
Electrical Stimulation
Electrical stimulation is a therapy that is not well understood. By passing an electrical current to an affected area, nerve conduction within the region is altered, which can in turn alter muscle contractility. Patients often experience diminished pain after this type of treatment.
What To Expect During Your First Session
During your first visit, your therapist will perform an evaluation to learn more about you and your condition. Your therapist then creates a specialized therapy program based on your physician’s recommendations and the results of the evaluation. Your therapist takes into account your expectations and goals, your age and physical abilities.
If you are in pain at your first visit, you should expect your therapist to provide a treatment that gives you pain relief. To achieve this, your therapist may provide modalities such as heat,
electrical stimulation, and procedures like manual therapy involving soft tissue or joint mobilization. Your therapist will also provide you with self care instructions in proper positioning to control your pain symptoms.
Exercise is almost always an important part of your program. You will usually exercise in our clinic and we will give you exercises to do at home to help speed up your recovery.
Following your first visit, your therapist will send a report to your physician regarding your evaluation and program plan. Before you return to your doctor, your therapist will send an updated report describing your progress in therapy.
Evaluations typically take 45 minutes to an hour. Succeeding visits take at least 30 minutes.
Please wear appropriate clothes for exercise and consider loose clothing to allow exposure of painful areas to allow treatment by your therapist.
Physical therapists have many rehab tools available, some specific aspects of physical therapy which you may encounter include:
Biofeedback
Biofeedback is a useful tool for strengthening a weakened muscle or muscle group. Essentially the machine allow you to monitor how well a particular muscle is functioning, so you can better understand how to help strengthen the affected muscles. It is also used to promote muscle relaxation by making you aware of your specific muscle activity and allowing you to control your muscle.
Stretching
Stretching is vital to maintain good range of motion around a joint. If a patient has stiff joints, normal activities such as opening a jar or climbing stairs can be severely affected. By proper stretching, these functions can be preserved. After an injury or surgery, scar tissue forms, and soft-tissue contracts; this is when stretching is most important.
Strengthening
Strengthening exercises are performed to help the patient improve the function of their muscles. The goal is to improve strength, increase endurance, and maintain or improve range of motion.
Ice and Heat Therapy
Ice and heat are useful to warm up and cool off muscles. In addition, these modalities can stimulate blood flow and decrease swelling. These can be important aspects of the therapeutic process.
Ultrasound
Ultrasound uses high frequency sound waves (not within the range we can hear) to stimulate the deep tissues within the body. By passing an ultrasound probe over the body, deep tissues are stimulated by the vibration of the sound wave. This leads to warming and increased blood flow to these tissues.
Electrical Stimulation
Electrical stimulation is a therapy that is not well understood. By passing an electrical current to an affected area, nerve conduction within the region is altered, which can in turn alter muscle contractility. Patients often experience diminished pain after this type of treatment.
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