Intramuscular Stimulation (IMS) Dry Needling in Cardston, AB

Intramuscular Stimulation (IMS) is a form of dry needling, similar to acupuncture, which refers to the use of monofilament needles without the delivery of medicine to treat pain. IMS is a highly effective treatment for a variety of conditions, especially chronic pain, nerve pain, and arthritis-related pain.

IMS is especially helpful in situations where physical therapy, chiropractic and/or massage therapy treatments have been helpful but without long-lasting effects. In these instances, there is usually a neurological component which causes the changes achieved in treatment to revert back due to a dysfunctional signal from the nervous system.

IMS can be a very effective treatment technique for treating chronic muscle and joint pain. IMS can be helpful in the diagnosis, treatment, and long-term management of conditions associated with dysfunctional or altered muscle, joint, and nerve states. IMS can be helpful with the rehabilitation of:

Chronic pain
Low back pain
Neck pain
Headaches
Arthritis
Disc herniations
Degenerative disc disease
Nerve pain
Whiplash
Persistent concussion symptoms
Sciatica
Fibromyalgia
Multiple Sclerosis

How Does IMS or Dry Needling Work?

IMS provides a three-fold treatment effect stimulating natural processes of the body:

Reflexive relaxation and lengthening of tight muscles
Restarting the healing process of injured tissue
Restoration of normal nerve function

Pain often alters body biomechanics by increasing muscle tightness and causing focused muscle spasms. These small muscle spasms then cause poor movement patterns and impaired posture, which further increases pain. This is known as the pain-spasm cycle. Left unchecked, the pain-spasm cycle can cause a sharp decline in function and mobility with increasing levels of pain and perceived disability.

The purpose of IMS is to break the pain-spasm cycle by relieving these focal muscle spasms. In turn, proper posture and normal movement patterns are restored. IMS can be used as a stand-alone treatment or may be used in conjunction with manual therapy and exercise prescription.

How long does IMS treatment remain effective?

Home exercises will be provided to ensure a lasting effect from IMS and maintain the gains achieved during and after IMS treatment. These exercises may involve strengthening, stretching or a combination of the two for the affected muscles and body movements. It is not uncommon to experience an ache in the treated muscles for a few hours after treatment. The application of heat can help ease this temporary discomfort. After treatment, you should experience a welcome improvement in mobility and strength, as well as decreased pain levels.

Does IMS treatment hurt?

Needle insertion into the skin is often not felt. Insertion into a muscle that is not dysfunctional is painless. However, applying IMS to a dysfunctional muscle will cause an aching/cramping sensation of varying degrees of intensity, depending on its state.

This sensation is due to the muscle shortening briefly as the muscle attempts to grasp the needle. The muscle then reflexively relaxes and releases its tension. This contract-relax sensation is important to experience as it indicates that the IMS treatment will likely be beneficial.

How often will I need IMS treatment?

1-2 weeks between treatments works best as this allows time for the body to recover from the treatment but not shift back into its previous state of dysfunction.

How many IMS treatments will I need?

The number of treatments required will vary depending upon several factors, such as the duration and extent of the condition being treated and how well the body responds to IMS treatment.

Shaw Physical Therapy in Cardston, AB, serves patients from Cardston, Leavitt, Beazer, Aetna, Hill Spring, Glenwood, Mountain View, Spring Coulee, Magrath, Del Bonita, Standoff, Fort McLeod, Claresholm, Waterton, Pincher Creek, Lethbridge, and Stirling, AB.