In my practice I offer modalities after performing a through physical examination IF I feel it would benefit the patient with their care. A modality is a type of electrical, thermal or mechanical energy that causes physiological changes. It helps to improve circulation, decrease swelling, reduce muscle spasms and help alleviate pain. As with any form of care there are always a set of contraindications which you should discuss with your health care provider with first before getting treatment.
I have a pretty sweet machine that has 6 different types of electrical modalities in it. If you want to know briefly what they are and what they are good for keep reading!
EMS aka Electrical Muscle Stimulation aka E-Stim
It’s a set of pads that you place on a certain muscle that you want to stimulate that may be weak from atrophy and muscles that are smooth (e.g. viscera). It provides a temporary reduction of spasm in the muscle. It also helps stimulate cellular activity and proprioception feedback and help with muscle re-education and strengthening. It’s a low frequency modality with an alternating current. You feel more of a muscle twitch either fast or slow depending on the frequency.
TENS aka Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation
This one is pretty popular because a lot of people have seen the commercials for this by Dr.Ho. The purpose of TENS is to control pain by exciting the sensory nerves which are part of the pain gate mechanism. Again, there is a set of pads (electrodes) you use on an area of the body, particularly nerves you are targeting. It uses a low voltage electric current to help relieve pain. It works great for patients with low back pain, arthritis and migraine headaches and much more.
Russian Stimulation
This is very helpful in strengthening and re-educating muscles which may have become weaken over time. It also helps to reduce edema (swelling), muscle spasms and decrease pain. It provides an alternating current with short bursts which causes the muscle to contract due to the medium frequency through the pads.
IFC aka Interferential Current
This is the deepest penetrating electrical modality due to its high frequency. It can provide pain relief, muscle spasm reduction, swelling reduction and promotes tissue healing. It’s used to address more chronic, post surgical and post trauma acute pain patients.
Premodulated Current aka Premod
This is similar to the benefits of IFC but premod current is a single channel that is used to mix frequencies prior to the delivery of the current to the body via the electrode (uses two rather than four). This works great on small muscle groups and joints such as elbows, ankle, foot and hands.
Ultrasound
Ultrasound is a deep heat treatment which uses sound waves. It provides pain relief with bursitis, adhesive capsulitis, soft tissue injuries and capsule tightness and scarring. It uses a coupling agent which helps reduce the impedance at air-steel-skin interface. It works great at treating musculoskeletal conditions that cause inflammation from injuries such as sprains and tendinitis. It can help increase healing rates, tissue relaxation, tissue heating and local blood flow.
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