The human body is amazingly complex and integrated in a way in which everything is somehow connected. And this fact can be made abundantly clear when a problem develops in one area and your nerves cause symptoms (in this case, pain) to radiate outward. When this happens, trigger point injections go straight to the source of your pain to bring you relief.
We offer a number of tools to help you overcome both acute and chronic pain. Our goal is to find sustainable solutions that don’t rely on medications, which often simply end up masking the problem and don’t allow your body to heal itself properly.
With trigger point injections, we can reduce the pain and inflammation to allow valuable time for your body to do what it does best — repair and rebuild.
Behind the Pain
When your body faces a problem, internally or externally, one of its first reactions is a tightening in your muscles. This action is part of your body’s flight-or-fight response and it’s designed to help you in stressful situations. But if this tightening in your muscles doesn’t subside, you’re left with chronic pain.
These areas of tension in your muscles, which are often referred to as “knots,” can develop for any number of reasons, from degenerative damage in your joints to stress. The end result is that these knots can irritate your nerves, and they prevent your natural resources from flowing freely, essentially forming a block.
Ultimately, these knots send you into a cycle of pain that continues until the tension is broken, which is the object of trigger point therapy.
Putting Trigger Point Injections to Work
With trigger point therapy, we target the areas of tension in your muscles, which we call trigger points, with injections that typically contain lidocaine, a corticosteroid, and saline. The lidocaine, which is a local anesthetic, goes to work immediately to quiet the irritated nerves in the area. At the same time, the steroid tackles the inflammation.
Together, the analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties allow your muscles to relax and the surrounding tissue, nerves, and blood vessels to function freely again. If you’d prefer not to have an anesthetic or corticosteroid, even dry needle injections can help relax your muscle knots.
This therapy is very effective at providing our patients with much-needed relief, as well as invaluable time to address the underlying issue. Your body uses this break from the tension to regenerate and repair damaged tissue, and you can do your part by strengthening the muscles in the affected area so they’re less prone to stress and strain.
Where Trigger Point Injections Work
We use trigger point injections to address myofascial problems almost anywhere in your body, including pain in your:
- Back
- Neck
- Shoulders
- Arms
- Legs
Trigger point injections have also enjoyed great success in providing relief for those who suffer from frequent headaches or fibromyalgia.
Most of our patients use trigger point injections in conjunction with other treatments, such as massage therapy, physical therapy, and acupuncture, in order to tackle the pain from every angle.
Precision Pain Care and Rehabilitation has two convenient locations in Richmond Hill – Queens and New Hyde Park – Long Island. Call the Richmond Hill office at (718) 215-1888, or (516) 419-4480 for the Long Island office, to arrange an appointment with our Interventional Pain Management Specialist, Dr. Jeffrey Chacko.
