From your daily posture to injuries, stress, and disease, many factors can influence your spinal health. Because of this, chronic back pain is a common complaint and not always easy to diagnose and treat.
Yet, ultrasound technology gives physiotherapists a closer look at what’s going on deep inside your body. This allows them to create a treatment plan that is relevant to you and brings you the relief you desperately need. So, let’s learn more about real-time ultrasound and how it can help you on your path to recovery—and help you find relief from back pain!
What is a Real-Time Ultrasound?
Real-time ultrasound is an imaging tool that is non-invasive and completely safe. An ultrasound machine emits inaudible sound waves at high frequencies that pass through tissue and bounce back. This continually creates a moving image on a screen that is interpreted.
In the medical world, ultrasound is used to assess internal organs, blood vessels, and various tissues. The most well-known use of ultrasound is sonograms, where pregnant women get glimpses of their growing babies before birth.
Physiotherapists can use real-time ultrasound to examine layers of tissue beneath the skin’s surface, making treatment options more effective and appropriate. So, let’s dig deeper and uncover how this technology can help diagnose and treat back pain.
How a Real-Time Ultrasound Helps Back Pain
Trained physiotherapists are well aware of the many possible causes of back pain, but with real-time ultrasound at their fingertips, diagnosing and treating the cause has become a lot easier and more personalised.
Diagnosing With Real-Time Ultrasounds
Back pain is very complex, with many instances occurring due to problems with other parts of the body. Ultimately, physiotherapists take a holistic approach when they treat their patients; they understand how the various parts of the body influence each other and strive to get down to the root cause.
There are two serious culprits to rule out when it comes to unexplained back pain: weak or damaged core muscles and a weak or damaged pelvic floor. Both of these muscle groups can be difficult to measure and assess. Thankfully, a real-time ultrasound allows a physiotherapist to easily view the tissue in both of these areas, successfully diagnose the problem, and put together a treatment plan that targets the exact cause of your back pain.
Biofeedback & Treatment
The ultrasound doesn’t just provide images of the problem. It allows the patient to see the effect that various exercises have on the different layers of muscles during the consultation.
With the guidance of the physiotherapist, they can use this feedback to learn how to “turn on,” strengthen, and work on the target area by themselves. Patients can train muscles they didn’t even know they had, which can give way to an accelerated recovery!
Monitoring & Progress
Regular real-time ultrasounds of the deep tissue help the physiotherapist monitor the patient’s progress and keep the treatment plan on track and relevant. This is very encouraging for both the patient and the therapist.
Book Your Appointment Today!
At Turramurra Physiotherapy, we use real-time ultrasound technology to help us diagnose and treat our patients efficiently and effectively. You deserve to lead a life free from chronic back pain—and you can! Let us help you on your way. Contact us today to schedule your appointment.
