Dry needling is a common physical therapy treatment intervention in our Boulder Physical Therapy practice for patients with musculoskeletal pain. It involves the insertion of a thin monofilament needle into a muscle. Dry needling has been proven effective in reducing pain, changing the status of trigger points, improving muscular blood flow, and has been suggested...
Ultrasound is a therapeutic modality designed to attempt to warm injured tissues, increase circulation, and reduce pain through transmission of sound waves into the body. Initially utilized in middle of the 20th century and likely reaching its’ peak use in the 90s before President Clinton signed the balanced budget act (which included enforcement of Medicare...
Direct access to Physical Therapy services was first written into a state’s law (Nebraska) in the 1950s and since has been shown in the literature to be safe, effective, and less costly than seeing a physician first for musculoskeletal pain. Due in part to its’ cost effectiveness large organizations including fortune 500 companies and the...
Since entering the sports medicine field in the early 2000s there has always been a presence of the newest gadget, technology, or device aimed at either reducing pain or accelerating tissue healing. As the years move forward the popularities of these devices wax and wane and eventually fall out of favor due to the next...
An important shift has taken place in medicine away from the old paternalistic model of care toward the development of the therapeutic alliance. Patients are now encouraged to engage and interact with their medical providers in order to find an optimal path forward. The alliance aims to incorporate patient values and expectations, the best available...
Hip impingement or femoroacetabular impingement is a diagnosis consistent with bony enlargement of the hip joint, abnormal contact between the joint surfaces, and associated hip pain and loss of function. As we have described in our previous blogs, FAI is the one of the fastest growing hip diagnoses due in part to greater utilization of...
Low back pain, along with death and taxes, remains one of the certainties of life. This condition affects over 90% of Americans and is often benign, but painful, in nature. Currently spending on low back pain is over 100 billion dollars a year and much of this spending can be attributed to unnecessary and unwarranted...
In any profession, utilized interventions and methods change with incoming ideas and evidence. New concepts and treatments often advance ahead of clinical research trials aiming to support or refute their utilization. Within Physical Therapy, pain neuroscience education has become a popular topic of late. Education topics regarding the development and chronicity of persistent pain are...
Patellar Tendon pain, also known as jumper’s knee, is a painful condition most commonly seen in athlete’s engaged in jumping sports such as track and field, basketball, and volleyball. Common causes of this condition include training errors (too much too soon) and underlying weakness in the quadricep and hip musculature. The gold standard of treatment...