What is Trigger Point Therapy?

   I think we have all experienced tension. You know, when you are sitting at your desk all day and your traps, shoulders, and neck start to tighten up and bother you? Well most likely your desk isn't going anywhere and neither is that tension. That is unless you do something about it. The reason why these muscles tighten up is because your posture is beginning to fail. Believe or not we were not designed to sit at a desk all day long. Shocking right? So when you're sitting at your computer for the 10th straight hour and your head begins to go forward, your shoulders roll inward, and your low back begins to slouch those tight muscles start acting up. They are tightening because they can NOT do this anymore!
   So we introduced a therapy called Trigger Point Therapy at Adjust Dallas back in July. This is an awesome easy procedure that immediately targets those areas of tension. You typically feel immediate relief. What's also great is that this therapy is covered by almost all insurance companies. We had a patient tell us last week that it feels like a glass of wine to her muscles! (But results or at least descriptions may very)

See what WebMD says about Trigger Point Therapy....

Trigger point injection (TPI) may be an option for treating pain in some patients. TPI is a procedure used to treat painful areas of muscle that contain trigger points, or knots of muscle that form when muscles do not relax. Many times, such knots can be felt under the skin. Trigger points may irritate the nerves around them and cause referred pain, or pain that is felt in another part of the body.

What Happens During a Trigger Point Injection?
In the TPI procedure, a health care professional inserts a small needle into the patient's trigger point. The injection contains a local anesthetic or saline, and may include a corticosteroid. With the injection, the trigger point is made inactive and the pain is alleviated. Usually, a brief course of treatment will result in sustained relief. Injections are given in a doctor's office and usually take just a few minutes. Several sites may be injected in one visit. If a patient has an allergy to a certain drug, a dry-needle technique (involving no medications) can be used.

When Is Trigger Point Injection Used?
TPI is used to treat many muscle groups, especially those in the arms, legs, lower back, and neck. In addition, TPI can be used to treat fibromyalgia and tension headaches. The technique is also used to alleviate myofascial pain syndrome (chronic pain involving tissue that surrounds muscle) that does not respond to other treatments.