How Electrical Stimulation Can Rehabilitate Your Injury

Chronic pain from an injury is something no one wants to live with, but sadly many injuries aren’t properly rehabilitated, and the result is loss of free mobility. Electrical stimulation (e-stim) is a valuable way to help alleviate chronic pain while supporting accelerated healing and restoring your range of motion. 

At The Spine and Sports Center in Sugarland and Houston, Texas, Dr. Benoy Benny provides rehabilitation that includes various forms of therapy, including electrical stimulation, for a well-rounded approach to your case. 

Candidates for e-stim

Electrical stimulation isn’t for everyone. Dr. Benny performs a thorough evaluation to determine if you’ll be a good candidate. Typically, we find that e-stim can help patients who have lower back pain, arthritis, or other spinal issues that cause nerve pain in your hips, legs, or back. 

E-stim can treat muscular pain, nerve pain, or both, so it’s important to understand the real source of the pain signals your body is sending to your brain.

A typical e-stim session

In advance of your first electrical stimulation appointment, we remind you to wear loose-fitting clothing. Depending on where on your body the treatment will be applied, you might have to partially disrobe so we can attach the electrodes to your skin. 

This process isn’t painful. The wires run into sticky adhesive pads that adhere to your skin and peel off easily after your treatment. In most cases, you’ll sit or lie comfortably while we perform the procedure.

The e-stim machine sends tiny pulses of electricity through the wires and into the pads, where they pulse into your body. Lighter pulses target muscles, and deeper pulses target nerves, allowing us to accurately treat the source of your pain. 

Each electrical pulse disrupts the messages the targeted area has been sending to your brain. Since your brain suddenly stops getting pain signals, you’ll probably get a little endorphin rush, which feeds the cycle and reduces pain even more. 

Ongoing e-stim treatment

Depending on the success of the treatment and level of pain relief reached, we may schedule regular sessions for you, lasting 5-30 minutes each. The effects of each treatment can last up to 24 hours, and repeated treatments can help reduce pain long-term.

E-stim is non-invasive, so you can have multiple sessions as needed. We continually mix and vary the strength, duration, and frequency of the electrical impulses so your body will have trouble building up a resistance to the stimulation.

Minimally invasive options like electrical stimulation can help when other options fail, and also can be used in tandem with other rehabilitative therapies and medications. Schedule a consultation today by calling our location closest to you, or visit our contact page for more information.