Treatment Methods used
Samuel Robinson BSc (Hons) GSR Mobile: 07587054854 Email: sam.robinson@csic.uk
Therapeutic ultrasound
Therapeutic ultrasound is a modality that has been used by physiotherapists since the 1940s. Ultrasound is applied using the head of an ultrasound probe that is placed in direct contact with your skin via a transmission coupling gel.
Therapeutic ultrasound has been shown to cause increases in:
healing rates
tissue relaxation
tissue heating
local blood flow
scar tissue breakdown.
How Can Ultrasound Help You?
The effect of ultrasound via an increase in local blood flow can be used to help reduce local swelling and chronic inflammation, and, according to some studies, promote bone fracture healing. The intensity or power density of the ultrasound can be adjusted depending on the desired effect. A greater power density (measured in watt/cm2) is often used in cases where scar tissue breakdown is the goal.
Treatment Session
This is a 60 minute appointment with the aim to to fully assess your injury, diagnose you and then receive some treatment there and then. Followed by an exercise programme and tips and tricks to help you get better sooner. There is no pressure for you to come back for any further treatment sessions, it is on an individual basis and you will be advised on further treatment accordingly but you can see how it goes and get in contact again if needed.
Firstly, Sam will listen to you and the history of your injury/ condition. This is your chance to talk to Sam about your injury. For example what you find hurts it, whether you've had this injury before and if you've ever seen another health care professional about it. We’ll then complete a full injury assessment. This includes joint range of motion (flexibility), muscle and functional strength, balance, a postural assessment and gait analysis if needed. This will help Sam to diagnose your injury and identify the cause of the injury to prevent it from reoccurring.
Once we have diagnosed you we will explain the diagnosis and the probable cause of the injury to educate you about your pain and why you've got it. Then we’ll discuss how we can treat the injury to decrease pain, increase range of movement and stop the injury from reoccurring.
Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENs)
TENS is a method of electrical stimulation which primarily aims to provide a degree of symptomatic pain relief by exciting sensory nerves and thereby stimulating either the pain gate mechanism and/or the opioid system. The different methods of applying TENS relate to these different physiological mechanisms. The effectiveness of TENS varies with the clinical pain being treated, but research would suggest that when used ‘well’ it provides significantly greater pain relief than a placebo intervention.
The type of stimulation delivered by the TENS unit aims to excite (stimulate) the sensory nerves, and by so doing, activate specific natural pain relief mechanisms.
Medical Acupuncture
After completing a course with the British Medical Acupuncture Society back in 2019 Sam can now offer acupuncture to his patients too. There are many science-based theories on how acupuncture works and Sam uses these theories to place very thin needles into specific points in the body that help to reduce chronic long term pain, muscle tension and referral pain- it's a great addition to the ever growing line up of modalities Sam can use to help his patients. Before any needles are used Sam will talk you through any worries you have and answer any questions to put your mind at ease- It's alot less painful than you imagine!
These are 45-60 minute appointments for further treatment once you have had an initial consultation.
These sessions will start by Sam asking you about how the injury has felt since the last Treatment. This time is also used to assess the exercises you’ve been given and see if Sam can advance those exercises or help you to perform them properly if you have any problems.
After this quick catch-up the focus turns to spending as much time as possible treating the injury and the stopping it from returning. These sessions can include a combination of any of the treatment tools available to Sam including Sports massage, taping, ultra sound and now Tens!
The main focus for our treatments is to go after the cause of the injury. The cause will be identified during the Initial assessment and then the treatment plans are designed to treat the injured tissue but also help to go after the cause and reduce the risk of the injury reoccurring.
At Chelmsford Sports Injury Clinic we believe it is not just about treating patients; it’s about making injuries a thing of the past. Achieved by returning patients back into the sport they love faster, stronger and fitter than before which in turn prevents the reoccurrence of injury.