Ask yourself this…does your hand wake you at night and do you shake your hand to relieve the numbness and/or pain? A ‘yes’ to this question correlates strongly to a positive carpal tunnel syndrome diagnosis, and is known as the Flick sign.
Bioflex low intensity laser, or photobiomodulation, is a great treatment for mild to moderate symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome. Surgery has become a common treatment for those with carpal tunnel syndrome, but surgery always comes with risks, usually of infection but occasionally more serious complications; and many people are leery of these risks. Laser provides an alternative, conservative treatment approach. It can also be very useful post surgery because it stimulates and accelerates healing and minimizes risk of infection. At Avalon Laser Health Physiotherapy and Wellness, we include it as an important part of our treatment plans. It is such a nice component to treatment because it works so well on sensitive nerve cells, always slower than other cells to heal; and reduces swelling and pain and allows more rapid rehab and return to routine.
From the research we know that carpal tunnel syndrome is a common complaint of those who spend more than 15 minutes at a time on the computer. It is aggravated by repetitive activity, such as keyboarding. Symptoms can affect both hands. Symptoms are variable, depending upon the amount of swelling within the carpal tunnel and the degree of compression on the median nerve; and may show up in both hands. Typically, sensory symptoms appear first – tingling or numbness; followed by pain in the thumb and thumb side of the hand; and later by weakness and wasting of thumb muscles. Regardless of which treatment option you choose, results are better the sooner treatment is initiated. When the nerve function is severely compromised, seen when symptoms have progressed to wasting and weakness, full recovery is also compromised.
As with almost every condition we see in a physiotherapy clinic, poor posture may contribute to your pain, and should be considered in the creation of your treatment plan. While a good physiotherapy assessment is needed to determine the significance of posture to your carpal tunnel presentation, you can get a ‘sneak peak’ by completing a remote posture analysis in the comfort of your home….click below to be sent a link.
The laser or photobiomodulation technology is powerful because it initiates a cascade of biochemical activity that provides ATP (cell energy) to injured or sub-functioning cells to restore their normal function. (More and more you will reference to low intensity laser as photobiomodulation, PBMD, because it differentiates the healing laser from other laser applications, and reflects its action). The whole process stimulates ‘normal’, without pain or adverse effects, but with huge benefits…if you have enough exposure to the healing energy, injured tissues heal completely, and prevent chronic inflammation and recurrence.
Treatment with the Bioflex laser for carpal tunnel syndrome will typically require between 25 and 55 minutes, per session, depending upon whether one or both hands are affected, or whether your neck is considered to be contributing to symptoms. For best results, it is important to continue treatment until you are pain-free, and have been able to resume routine activities and remain pain-free. An average count of treatments required is 10, but this varies with type and extent of injury, how long you have had pain and your general health. It often occurs that the laser dosage requires adjustment to achieve the best rate of healing, and this typically occurs over the first 3 or 4 treatments. Thereafter, a good response to photobiomodulation is very clear – pain recedes and mobility improves, quite steadily. Best of all, if you stay with the program, healing will be complete and chronicity unlikely.
For further information on the conditions we treat and services we offer, or to book an appointment please call 709-753-0155, email: info@avalonlaserhealth.ca
