Pain in Plano

Plantar Fasciitis (PLAN-tur fas-e-I-tis) is one of the most common causes of heel pain. It involves pain and inflammation of a thick band of tissue, called the plantar fascia, which runs across the bottom of your foot — connecting your heel bone to your toes.

Plantar fasciitis (PF) causes stabbing pain that usually occurs with your very first steps in the morning. Once your foot limbers up, the pain of plantar fasciitis normally decreases, but it may return after long periods of standing or after getting up from a seated position. Plantar fasciitis is particularly common in runners. People who are overweight, women who are pregnant, and those who wear shoes with inadequate support, are at a higher risk of plantar fasciitis.

A Note from the Doctor: We have had great success treating plantar fasciitis in a limited number of visits. The treatment includes myotherapy, stretching, and rehabilitative exercises. With the treatment, we are able to break down the restricted tissue to create a better blood flow to the injury and allow it to heal in a quicker more efficient manner.

Many people that suffer from plantar fasciitis will seek podiatric or orthopedic specialists and opt for cortisone injections. This will help decrease the inflammation but is often described as “masking the pain” because it does not address the underlying problem. It can be a quick way to relieve the pain associated with plantar fasciitis and depending on the individual can have a long-lasting effect. Orthotics and night splints are often prescribed as well.

Golfer’s elbow is pain and inflammation on the inner side of your elbow, where the tendons of your forearm muscles attach to the bony bump on the inside of your elbow. The pain may spread into your forearm and wrist. Golfer’s elbow — also known as medial epicondylitis — is similar to tennis elbow. But it occurs on the inside, rather than the outside, of your elbow. And it is not limited to golfers. Tennis players and others who repeatedly use their wrist flexors and pronators can develop golfer’s elbow.

A Note from the Doctor: Like Tennis elbow, Golfer’s elbow is treated in a similar fashion and we get the same great results utilizing myotherapy, stretching, and rehabilitative exercises in a limited number of visits. The primary issue with golfer's elbow is inflammation within the tendon at the attachment on the medial epicondyle and a lack of blood flow due to restrictions within the tissue. With myotherapy, we are able to break down these restrictions and create more blood flow to the injured area and allow the injury to heal quicker more efficiently. Rest may also be advised.

Many people that suffer from golfer's elbow opt for cortisone injections, which will help decrease the inflammation but is often described as “masking the pain” because it does not address the underlying problem. It can be a quick way to relieve the pain associated with golfer's elbow and depending on the individual can have a long-lasting effect.

Tennis elbow (lateral epicondylitis) is one of several overuse injuries that can affect your elbow. As you might assume, playing tennis is one cause of tennis elbow — but many other common activities can cause tennis elbow. Any activity where one is overusing the wrist extensors or supinators can cause pain to arise.

The pain of tennis elbow occurs primarily where the tendons of your forearm muscles attach to the bony prominence on the outside of your elbow (lateral epicondyle). Pain can also spread into your forearm and wrist.

A Note from the Doctor: We have good results in treating tennis elbow in a limited number of visits utilizing myotherapy, stretching, and rehabilitative exercises. The primary issue with tennis elbow is inflammation within the tendon at the attachment on the lateral epicondyle and a lack of blood flow due to restrictions within the tissue. With myotherapy, we are able to break down these restrictions and create more blood flow to the injured area and allow the injury to heal quicker and more efficiently. Rest may also be advised.

Many people that suffer from tennis elbow opt for cortisone injections which will help decrease the inflammation but is often described as “masking the pain” because it does not address the underlying problem. It can be a quick way to relieve the pain associated with tennis elbow and depending on the individual can have a long-lasting effect.

The term “shin splints” refers to pain along either the inside or outside of the shinbone (tibia)(classically inside). The pain is caused by an overload on the shinbone and the connective tissues that attach your muscles to the bone. People who have over-pronated feet or are commonly named “flat-footed” may be more prone to suffer from shin splints when they try to run any distance. The over-pronation of the feet causes a shift in the tibia, which will aggravate the posterior tibialis muscle that originates on the medial aspect of the tibia. Long-term shin splints can lead to stress fractures which can take months to heal.

A Note from the Doctor: Rest, ice, and over-the-counter pain relievers are your best bet for home therapy. We get great results in treating shin splints utilizing myotherapy and stretching techniques. Typically, no more than 2 treatments are necessary to relieve the pain.

Reoccurrence can happen due to the biomechanics of the feet. A person with flat feet that is having shin pain, should be limited in the amount of long-distance running they are doing while having the shin pain. X-ray and MRI could be utilized to rule out stress fracture if the pain is persistent.

Neck pain is a common complaint. Most causes of neck pain aren’t serious. Neck muscles can be strained from poor posture — whether it’s leaning into your computer at work or hunching over your workbench doing hobbies at home. Arthritic changes (degenerative in nature, bone spurs) can also be a cause of neck pain.

A Note from the Doctor: It also needs to be noted that emotional stress can cause just as much discomfort as physical stress on the body. If an individual is going through a stressful event, he/she may start to experience muscular pain. Many times it is in the neck, shoulders, or upper/midback. It may not be serious to the extent of disc injury or fracture but it can still be a nuisance to deal with on a daily basis. We treat neck pain with myotherapy, stretching, and rehabilitative exercises. Exercises may improve pain by restoring muscle function, optimizing posture to prevent overload of muscle, and increasing the strength and endurance of your neck muscles. We will take you through a series of orthopedic, neurologic, and muscle tests to ensure it is an injury that we can treat.

Low back pain (or lumbago) is a common musculoskeletal disorder affecting 80% of people at some point in their lives. It accounts for more sick leave and disability than any other medical condition. It can be acute, subacute, or chronic in duration. Most often, the symptoms of low back pain show significant improvement within a few weeks from the onset with conservative measures.

One method of classifying lower back pain is by the duration of symptoms: acute (less than 4 weeks), sub-acute (4–12 weeks), chronic (more than 12 weeks). Determination of the underlying cause is usually made through a combination of medical history, physical examination, and, when necessary, diagnostic testing, such as an x-ray, CT scan, or MRI.

A Note from the Doctor: Low Back Pain attributes for over half of my patient base. Children can develop low back pain from the combination of the activity they are participating in and growth spurts. It is very common for adults to develop low back pain for many different reasons. Quoting an excerpt from Web MD, “Most low back pain is triggered by some combination of overuse, muscle strain, and injury to the muscles, ligaments, and discs that support the spine. Many experts believe that over time muscle strain can lead to an overall imbalance in the spinal structure. This leads to a constant tension on the muscles, ligaments, bones, and discs, making the back more prone to injury or re-injury.”

The causes of pain in the low back, or lumbosacral region, tend to add on to one another. For example, after straining muscles, you are likely to walk or move in different ways to avoid pain or to use muscles that aren’t sore. That can cause you to strain other muscles that don’t usually move that way.

Adhesive capsulitis, also known as frozen shoulder, is a condition characterized by stiffness and pain in your shoulder joint. Signs and symptoms begin gradually, worsen over time and then resolve, usually within a two-year period.

Your risk of developing frozen shoulder increases if you’ve recently had to have your arm in a sling for several weeks, or if you have had surgery in which your arm was immobilized in a specific position for a prolonged period. Many times it develops overnight without any significant cause. Individuals suffering with frozen shoulder often comment they just started having pain one day and it continued to get worse to the point they could not move their arms. It is typically described as a constant nuisance and terrible pain with any movement of the shoulder that will get worse at night.

A Note from the Doctor: Frozen shoulder is a tricky one due to not fully understanding the reason it arises. We utilize myotherapy, stretching, and rehabilitative exercises. We see the greatest change in the amount of pain the individual suffers with. Most often it is significantly decreased. The range of motion improves as well but may take several months to get the shoulder back to a full pain-free range of motion.

A tension headache or tension-type headache, as it’s medically known is the most common type of headache, and yet its causes aren’t well understood. A tension headache is generally a diffuse, mild to moderate pain that many people describe as feeling as if there’s a tight band around their head. It may feel as though muscle contractions are responsible for your head pain but some experts disagree. Fortunately, effective treatments for tension headaches are available. Managing a tension headache is often a balance between fostering healthy habits, finding effective non-drug treatments, and using medications appropriately.

Migraines are chronic headaches that can cause significant pain for hours or even days. Symptoms can be so severe that all you can think about is finding a dark, quiet place to lie down. Some migraines are preceded or accompanied by sensory warning symptoms or signs (auras), such as flashes of light, blind spots or tingling in your arm or leg. A migraine is often accompanied by nausea, vomiting, and extreme sensitivity to light and sound.

A Note from the Doctor: We treat all Headaches with myotherapy and neck exercises. Tension Headaches do respond very well to our treatment because it does seem most are caused by muscle tension in the neck and occipital region. Migraines may not respond as fast but we have had success in ridding individuals w/ chronic migraine headaches. Other measures that can be prescribed by an MD would be prescription medication and botox injections have become a popular method in treating chronic migraines.

Sciatica refers to pain that radiates along the path of the sciatic nerve and its branches — from your back down your buttock and leg. The sciatic nerve is the longest nerve in your body. It runs from your spinal cord to your buttock and hip area and down the back of each leg. Sciatica is a symptom, not a disorder. The radiating pain of sciatica signals another problem involving the nerve, such as a herniated disk. Depending on the cause, the pain of acute sciatica — which may be quite uncomfortable — usually goes away on its own within a couple of weeks or may take months.

Causes of sciatic type pain can come from a couple of different sources. Sometimes the disc bulge or herniation can cause pain and this will most of the time be accompanied by tingling and numbness down the affected leg and foot. Many people with this form of sciatica don’t realize the issue is in the back because most often there is no pain in the back. Another source of pain from sciatica is the piriformis muscle. It is the one muscle that the sciatic nerve pierces through and if it is inflamed, there will be associated sciatic pain. The pain will most often travel from the glut region down the back of the leg and to the knee. It usually will not go beyond the knee.

A Note from the Doctor: We will get great results if the reason for the sciatic pain is muscular in nature by utilizing myotherapy, stretching, and rehabilitative exercises. If through our evaluation we find the pain is resulting from a disc injury we will refer for an MRI to find the extent of damage to the disc. This will be accompanied by an appointment with a back specialist for an evaluation and to discuss other options available. Some people have the pain and numbness so bad that they will opt for surgery and others will allow the pain to subside and do the physical therapy necessary for it not to become a problem again. People with disc injury resulting from sciatica can have reoccurrence with or without surgery.

TMJ disorders cause tenderness and pain in the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) — the joint on each side of your head in front of your ears, where your lower jawbone meets your skull. This joint allows you to talk, chew and yawn.

TMJ disorders can be caused by many different types of problems — including arthritis, jaw injury, or muscle fatigue from clenching or grinding your teeth.

A Note from the Doctor: If it has been determined through our evaluation that the TMJ problems are muscular in nature, we will utilize myotherapy, stretching, and rehabilitative exercises. There are other measures, such as night guards that can be utilized as well.

Hip Pain refers to pain that occurs in and around your hip. Hip pain can be caused by problems with your hip joint. This type of hip pain tends to be felt on the inside of your hip or in your groin. Hip pain can also be caused by problems with the muscle, ligaments, tendons, and other structures that support your hip joint.

Hip pain associated with these problems tends to occur on the outside of the hip or the upper thigh. Hip pain can sometimes be caused by diseases and conditions in other areas of your body. This type of pain is called referred pain. Hip pain is rarely an emergency, and most hip pain can be controlled with self-care at home.

A Note from the Doctor: A Note from the Doctor: Like any pain that can develop in other areas of the body, it has to be determined what is causing the pain. In terms of the hip, the pain can arise from muscular strain/sprain or actual degenerative changes in the hip joint. If it is determined through our evaluation that the hip pain is musculoskeletal in nature, we will treat utilizing myotherapy, stretching, and rehabilitative exercises.