Trigger Point Therapy in Canton Georgia

Have you ever heard of a trigger point?
It may be the cause of your pain.

In the muscles of your skeletal system you may have trigger points, which are highly sensitive places that result in tenderness and constant pain. The pain can be referred, meaning it doesn’t occur where the trigger point is, but is felt far away. Patients often describe a sensation of radiating pain spreading out from one point. The trigger point can also have a painful muscle twitch, a small contraction affecting only a tiny part of the muscle rather than contracting the entire muscle.

Trigger points can occur anywhere but most frequently occur in shoulder blades, upper shoulders, neck, upper breast, elbow tops or bottoms, front or back of the knees, and feet.

Trigger points were first defined in 1942 by Dr. Janet Travell, who observed that you can feel a point in a band of skeletal muscle that is painful when touched, triggering a twitch and often radiating pain. This pain is not caused by traditional reasons like inflammation, infection, trauma, or degeneration.

How can you tell if you have pain caused by trigger points?

A doctor knowledgeable about trigger points looks for patterns in pain, symptoms, and by feeling for a hard nodule in muscle, which when touched may cause twitching or pain.

What trigger point therapy is recommended?

Methods of treating trigger points include physical therapy, chiropractic vibrators, electrical stimulation of muscles with devices like H-wave, applying a cooling spray or cooling liquid, or dry needling the muscle. But the most immediate relief can come from trigger point injections, which often work when other methods fail.

Your medical doctor will determine the right injection. Saline, anesthetics, steroids, or adrenalin can be injected. Often a mix of lidocaine and marcaine is used.

Recently, major insurance firms began covering trigger point injections.

Learn more about trigger points

American Family Physician: Trigger Points: Diagnosis and Management
Trigger Point Injections