Shockwave therapy uses a handheld tool to drive pulses of sound-wave energy into an aching tendon or a muscle knot. The goal is less pain and a restart of repair in tissue that quit healing, with no more than one session a week.
You get this treatment only if your physician orders it, and your physician also sets how strong it is.
What is shockwave therapy?
Your technician holds a wand to the tendon or muscle named in your physician’s order and sends sound-wave energy into it in pulses.
How does it help after a crash or fall?
The pulses calm pain and help restart repair in tissue that stopped healing. It is given over a series of visits, never more often than once a week.
What does it feel like?
A hard, rapid tapping; for a few seconds it may feel unpleasant. Every 500 pulses, your technician asks for your pain number. The skin may look red or slightly bruised afterward.
Who should not have it?
- Pregnancy
- Blood thinners or a bleeding disorder
- Cancer or an infection in the area
- A steroid injection at that spot in the past 6 weeks
- Anyone under 18 with growing bones near the spot
- Near the chest, head, spine, a major artery or a major nerve
- A pacemaker
Each session opens with your technician reading the safety questions aloud to you. A changed answer sends the decision to a physician before the machine is turned on. Saying stop ends the treatment, any time.
How long does it take?
Close to 10 minutes per session, with at least a week between sessions.
What to remember
- Once a week, at the most.
- Give your pain number each time we ask.
- A pink patch or a little bruise afterward is usually fine.
Show us you have it: If the treated spot puffed up or bruised badly at home, what would you do? Tell us. If any part is unclear, ask us to go over it again; there is no limit on that.
Shockwave is often used for heel pain from plantar fasciitis and for sore tendons around a hurt shoulder. If you had a bursa injection in the same spot, tell us the date.
Other treatments in the program
- Heat and cold therapy
- Vibration therapy
- Traction chair
- Neck decompression
- Laser therapy
- TENS (gentle electrical stimulation)
This page belongs to the Gateway Midwest physician-directed physiotherapy program. On Natural Bridge Road, the physician who examined you signs each order, and no treatment runs without a physician on site.
Hurt in an accident? Start here.
You do not need a lawyer, a police report or a referral to be seen. Bring your symptoms and we will work out the rest.
Monday–Friday, 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. Same-day appointments are often available for new accident and injury patients.