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According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 20% of American adults (about 50 million) suffer from some form of chronic pain. Much of this chronic pain could be the result of trigger points, which can form from exercise, manual labor, postural deviation, and more.
If you suffer from chronic pain, you should consider trigger point injections for relief. Take a moment to let the team at White Integrated Health Clinics fill you in on everything you need to know about trigger points, trigger point injections, and how to get on the road to a pain-free life.
To understand trigger point injections, it’s first helpful to understand trigger points themselves.
“Trigger point” is a shortened version of “myofascial trigger point,” which you may know colloquially as muscle knots. There are a few varying explanations behind muscle knots, but most scientists agree that they’re essentially small patches of tightly contracted muscle that block off their own blood supply.
The tightness combined with poor blood circulation leads to that uncomfortably tender feeling most of us are familiar with. You know the one — when a gentle touch feels like a stab, and forget about a massage, because the thought of elbows in your back makes you want to cry.
What many people don’t know, however, is that trigger points aren’t confined to singular areas, and they often affect parts of your body that aren’t even near the actual trigger point. For instance, a trigger point in your lower back can cause leg pain, and a trigger point in your shoulder can cause neck pain or a headache.
If you have many trigger points that are always flaring up, you may want to talk to your doctor about myofascial pain syndrome.
Now that you know what a trigger point is, on to trigger point injections: These shots soothe trigger points by relaxing those super-contracted patches of muscle. Depending on your level of pain, your doctor may inject a steroid solution, an anesthetic, or a combination of both.
Your provider at White Integrated Health Clinics can help you decide which version of a trigger point injection is best for you.
Patients come to White Integrated Health Clinics seeking trigger point therapy for all sorts of reasons. Some common conditions that trigger point injections treat include:
There’s no gold standard for the frequency of trigger point injections. You may need just one trigger point injection to alleviate temporary pain, or you may need to start a pain-relief regimen that involves recurring trigger point injections.
How often you get trigger point injections is up to you and your doctor — your provider at White Integrated Health Clinics can help you determine the best course of treatment.
To learn more about trigger point injections, visit our trigger point FAQ page. If you’re ready to get rid of chronic pain, get in touch with our pain relief experts right away. Call White Integrated Health Clinics at 817-349-7541 or book an appointment online. You can also send us a message here on our website.
