Four Ways Shockwave Treatment Can Help With Heel Pain

Shockwave therapy is a non-invasive, drug-free treatment that helps to relieve pain and inflammation. It's an alternative to surgery, which can be very effective in the right hands.

If your heel pain has been going on for a while, or if it's making it difficult to get around, shockwave therapy may be able to help. Shockwave treatment is a noninvasive procedure that uses sound waves to stimulate healing in soft tissue injuries—and it can also be used to treat heel pain. Here are three ways shockwave treatment can help with heel pain:

1. Shockwave Treatment Can Help With Inflammation

If you have inflammation and swelling in your heel area, then shockwave treatment may help to reduce those symptoms. The goal is to stimulate the healing process by encouraging your body to produce more collagen and repair tissue damage. This will decrease pain, swelling and inflammation and also improve mobility so you're able to walk without limping or experiencing any other discomfort from walking too long on an injured foot.

2. Shockwave Treatment Can Speed Up Healing Time By Breaking Down Scar Tissue

The second thing that shockwave treatment can help with is tissue repair. In this case, it's important to understand that there are two types of tissue in your heel — bone and soft tissue — and they require different kinds of treatment. For example, while the bone heals on its own, soft tissue needs some kind of intervention to heal properly. Shockwave treatment can be used to stimulate healing in damaged soft tissues like tendons, ligaments and muscles by stimulating cell growth and collagen production within these tissues. This means that it can be used to treat conditions like plantar fasciitis or tendonitis (inflammation of the tendons), which are common causes of heel pain.

3. Shockwave Treatment Can Reduce Spasms And Tightness

A common cause of heel pain is spasms or tightness in the calf muscle. This can occur when you put pressure on your heel, causing an involuntary contraction of the calf muscle. The contraction squeezes out blood from your tendon, which can cause inflammation and pain.

Shockwave treatment works by stimulating healing at this level by breaking down scar tissue within your soft tissues and improving blood flow in the area. This helps relieve some of the symptoms associated with plantar fasciitis such as heel pain, tenderness and stiffness during activity, which reduces your risk of developing more serious complications such as stress fractures or tears.

Shockwave therapy is a non-invasive treatment that can help relieve pain, reduce swelling and restore mobility in a variety of conditions such as heel pain. For more information about shockwave therapy, contact your podiatrist today.