TENS therapy uses adhesive pads and a low electrical current that you feel as a tingle, which turns down pain signals. It is the calm-down step that ends most physiotherapy visits.
You get this treatment only if your physician orders it, and your physician also sets how strong it is.
What is TENS (gentle electrical stimulation)?
A small unit is wired to adhesive pads placed around the painful spot, and it runs a gentle current through them.
How does it help after a crash or fall?
Pain and the tingle share the same nerve pathways, and the tingle crowds the pain signal out. Relief often starts while the pads are on and can last a while afterward.
What does it feel like?
A strong but comfortable tingle. It should never hurt. You keep a call button handy, and five minutes in your technician checks how you are doing.
Who should not have it?
- A pacemaker or implanted stimulator
- The belly or low back during pregnancy
- The throat, the eyes or the chest
- Broken skin or a blood clot
- The head or neck after any past seizure
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?
About 15 minutes.
What to remember
- Strong and comfortable, never painful.
- Press the call button if anything changes.
- Pads never go on the throat or across the chest.
Show us you have it: Show us, on your own body, the safe spots for pads and the off-limits ones. If any part is unclear, ask us to go over it again; there is no limit on that.
When TENS works for you, a home TENS unit may be ordered so you have it between visits. Treatments like this are part of how we keep pain medicine to a minimum; see our opioid stewardship.
Other treatments in the program
- Heat and cold therapy
- Vibration therapy
- Traction chair
- Neck decompression
- Laser therapy
- Shockwave therapy
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.