Pain Management

Pain management is a big, BIG part of physical therapy work! It’s what brings most people to physical therapy in the first place. Have knee pain? Back pain? Sharp pain? Dull pain? Pain that started yesterday? Pain you’ve had for years? Then it’s likely that physical therapy can help!

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How do PTs help?

Physical therapists can help you manage general pain or pain specific to one area or injury. Some of the tools they may use are:

Exercise: Strengthening and stretching the appropriate muscles.

Manual therapy: Things like moving your joints around for you, dry needling, and trigger point release. If you’re lucky, this might include a bit of massage.

Education: Helping you understand your body and how pain works.

Why would I go to physical therapy when I could just take a pill?

Pain medications treat the symptom, not the cause. They kind of just trick your brain into thinking everything’s all hunky dory, which is often not the best solution if you’re dealing with a chronic or potentially chronic pain issue. On top of that, there’s the risk of becoming addicted to pain medications. It’s a lot harder to overdose on exercise. Physical therapy is a long-term solution that can improve body function and reduce pain. Just to be clear, I’m not saying pain meds are always bad. I’m just saying they aren’t the best answer for every pain problem.

You know, Ruby… That really sounds like a lot of work. I don’t know if I’m into all that.

Doing the exercises your physical therapist gives you is a bit of work, yes, but I PROMISE you it is WORTH IT to live more comfortably! And something just as important as giving yourself time to do your home exercise program is being honest with your PT. If you tell them you’ve done your exercises when you haven’t, they may just give you different ones to do. These new exercises could target different muscles and be less effective, which is not good for you! Please help them help you by keeping the lines of communication open.

If you’re curious to know more, try going to one of these sites:

https://www.choosept.com/resources/detail/how-physical-therapists-manage-pain

https://www.burke.org/blog/2019/12/what-to-know-about-physical-therapy-for-pain-management/198