Injection Therapies

The goal of all injection therapies is to correct the underlying cause of muscle & joint pain. To do this, we need to understand the causes of chronic pain.

Injuries that don’t heal can be caused by several different factors.  Accurate assessment is the key to success. Because there are many causes to muscle & joint pain, there are several different injection therapies that are utilized.

Main Causes of Muscle & Join Pain

• Ligament & tendon laxity – loose ligaments & tendons are unable to stabilize joints & cause the supporting muscles to spasm in order to do their job . . . this ultimately leads to painful trigger points & often referral pain to other areas.

• Torn ligaments, tendons and/or muscles – torn ligaments, tendons & muscles are active pain generators in & of themselves in addition to being unable to stabilize joints & other boney structures.

• Decreased oxygen uptake – ligaments & joints have poor circulation. Aging further decreases both circulation and oxygen uptake. Decreased circulation and oxygen uptake result in reduced nutrient delivery, reduced immune response & increased acidosis in the site of injury.

• Scar adhesions – scars from surgery & trauma heal in a 3-D net that can often bind nerves, acupuncture meridians and cause stickiness of the serous lining of other tissues that impair normal movement and activity.

• Nerve plexus dysfunction – in some cases a large bundle of nerves known as a nerve plexus can be under-functioning. This is often the case with a large nerve plexus called the Frankenhauser plexus which determines a lot of the functioning in the pelvis that is associated with pelvic pain & menstrual disorders.

Injection Therapies

• Prolotherapy – this is the injection of dextrose (purified sugar water) to focus the body’s immune system to the area of injury so that it can heal itself. (Read More)

• Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) – this therapy begins with drawing the patient’s own blood. The patient’s blood is then spun in a centrifuge so that the growth factors & platelets are concentrated greater than 5x that of normal blood. This injection of these growth factors is a strong signal to the body’s own stems cells to regenerate the damaged tissue. It is the strongest of the injection therapies for tissue repair. (Read More)

• Neural Therapy – this is the injection of scars with anesthetic to free adhesions that are impairing nerve and acupuncture meridians. It is also used to normalize the function of various nerve plexus in the body. (Read More)

Rehabilitation

Because of pain, many chronic injuries cause changes in body movement. Some chronic injuries are actually caused by abnormal movement patterns in the body. These injection techniques are designed to heal damaged tissues, however if there are weak muscles or aberrant movement patterns present, these injuries can recur in a matter of time.

It is very important to have some kind of physical therapy done in conjunction and in-between these injection treatments. Dr. Riddle highly encourages physical therapy and chiropractic soft tissue therapy so that these injuries do not recur.

Contact us for more information about practitioners who know how to specifically support the injection treatment protocols we provide. This part of the treatment process can not be over-emphasized.