8 Common Physical Therapy Treatment And Modalities

Suppose you are suffering from any musculoskeletal injury or movement dysfunction. The symptoms may be mild, or specific symptoms may severely limit your functional mobility. In that case, your healthcare provider may refer you to a physical therapy program to help you get relief from the pain and improve your mobility. 

Many treatment options may exist for patients who are referred to physical therapy. The physical therapist often uses physical agents and modalities to augment your therapy, thus helping you achieve rehabilitation goals. It may be used for decreasing pain and inflammation. Exercise may be prescribed to help you increase your strength, endurance, and range of motion. 

Your physical therapist must be well prepared to explain the reason for using each therapeutic modality and inform you about the expectations you can keep from each treatment.

Some common physical therapy modalities include the following:

• Exercise – Exercise is a controlled physical stress applied to the body to help improve strength, range of motion, or flexibility. Exercise can be passive or active. Passive exercise requires relaxing while another person, like a physical therapist, applies the stress. One example is a hamstring stretch, where a person lifts their leg to elongate the hamstring muscle on the back of their thigh. 

You may obtain physical therapy services at your home, in your clinic, or while in your hospital; you are more likely to be engaged in some form of exercise to help you improve your mobility. 

• Ultrasound – Ultrasound is a deep heating treatment used to treat many musculoskeletal conditions like sprains, strains, or tendonitis. Ultrasound may be administered by your physical therapist using an ultrasound machine. A wand called a sound head is pressed gently against your skin and moved in small circular sweeps near the site of injury. A small amount of gel is also used to absorb the ultrasound waves into your skin and muscles. 
• Electrical stimulation – Electrical stimulation is a process that is occasionally used in physical therapy for decreasing pain around the injured tissues. Two theories usually describe the working of electrical stimulation, i.e., the gate theory and the opiate theory. Some other forms of electrical stimulation that may be used to contract muscles is neuromuscular electrical stimulation, which is used to help the injured muscles to function correctly. 
• Traction – Traction is beneficial in treating low back pain and neck pain for helping you decrease pain and improve mobility in the spine. To use lumbar traction, you must be strapped into a mechanical machine. There is a vest that helps support your ribs and another device that wraps around your pelvis. The vest and pelvic device are stabilized with straps, and a machine applies a mechanical force.
• Joint mobilization – Joint mobilization occurs when the physical therapist passively moves the joint of your body in a certain specific direction. It can help you to decrease pain and also improve mobility. While you often think of your joints as hinges, a gliding motion also occurs between the joints of the body. This gliding motion is increased during joint mobilizations. The degree to which your therapist moves each joint depends on the amount of pressure and the direction of force applied to the joint. 
• Massage – Massage is using the hands to knead the injured tissues of your body to help decrease pain, improve circulation, and reduce muscle tension. Many massage techniques include effleurage, petrissage, and trigger point massage. 
• Heat – Moist heat, or hot packs, may be applied to your body if you have an injury. The heat helps increase the injured tissues’ circulation, relax the muscles, and provide pain relief. In a physical therapy clinic, hot packs are kept in a device called a hydrocollator. It is a large tank of hot water. The hot packs are cloth packs filled with sand, clay, and silica. The hot pack absorbs the hot water, which is then wrapped in terry cloth covers and towels before being applied to your body. The hot pack is usually kept on the injured body part for 15 to 20 minutes. 
• Ice – If you have an injury, cold packs or ice may be applied to your body to help decrease pain and control inflammation. Ice is usually used during the acute or initial phase of injury to limit localized swelling around tissues. Cold packs are usually applied for 15 to 20 minutes. Like hot packs, care must be used to prevent skin damage from getting too cold.

Conclusion

Physical therapy can be beneficial for treating a variety of conditions. It helps in treating certain musculoskeletal conditions without any surgery. Physical Therapy helps provide long-term relief to people. Physical therapy techniques also help by educating you to avoid further injuries. A trained and experienced physical therapist can be beneficial in providing the proper guidance for long-lasting relief from pain or discomfort.