Orthopaedic Rehab Specialists on Jackson Road in Ann Arbor got a piezowave machine in May and has been using it to help combat chronic pain and musculoskeletal issues ever since.
ORS Ann Arbor Facility Manager and Physical Therapist David Arend said the piezowave uses acoustic compression therapy through a wand that delivers sound waves. Manipulating muscle tissue with sound waves encourages blood flow and healer cells to repair the area.
“It (the piezowave) makes a sound wave that can both detect and treat the tissue,” Arend said. “If you have discomfort in certain areas with that sound wave as penetrated tissue, then we know that tissue is restricted. For normal muscle tissue, the sound wave would bounce off and then kind of dissipate. So if you have discomfort when we administer the sound wave, we know that’s an area that needs to be treated.”
ORS physical therapists and physical therapist assistants hold and administer the device available for ORS physical therapy patients. Arend said people seeking to try piezowave treatment need to establish a physical therapy plan of care with ORS.
ORS patient Erin Roberts first went to ORS in high school and is currently in treatment at ORS for plantar fasciitis. In a video interview with ORS, Roberts said she uses the piezowave to combat her plantar fasciitis pain on the side of her foot that used to cause her to limp.
“Sometimes when you have pain in your foot, it feels like you can’t do anything,” Roberts said. “It really hinders your enjoyment of going places and doing things with other people. I would recommend using physical therapy and the piezowave to relieve pain in order to get back to the things you like.”
Roberts was referred for piezowave treatment by a podiatry clinic in Lansing and said she felt better after her first treatment.
“I was able to walk my dogs without not wanting to do it and avoiding it,” Roberts said. “I was able to walk to work. I have to park a little distance from my office. I was able to walk to work without as much discomfort.”
Arend said Piezowave sessions usually take 10-20 minutes, and patients usually feel results after a few sessions.
“It’s a new manipulation of your body tissue. You have to have a three-day rest window from when you use it to allow that full healing and blood flow process to take place. If you manipulate too early with the machine, like if we tried to do back-to-back days, there’s no added benefit, because your body is still on that restorative phase.”
Other injuries the piezowave can be used on include tennis elbow, golfer’s elbow, back pain and tissue problems.
Piezowave differs from ultrasound and other techniques because it can be used in levels for different types of injuries and pain.
“We can work not only at a specific intensity of the sound wave but also a specific depth,” Arend said. “Knee pain and low back pain have different depths at which we might want to work the tissue. Some folks are hypersensitive, so you can’t press very hard or massage much, but you can use this machine on a low setting to manipulate tissue that might be so deep, like a hip or a back, you wouldn’t be able to reach that tissue otherwise.”
ORS offers piezo wave therapy at its Jackson Road location in Ann Arbor, as well as in Jackson, Lansing, Jonesville, Okemos and Holt. For more information, visit www.orsmi.com/piezowave-therapy.
“For patients that aren’t responding to traditional methods of physical therapy, this is a new way to work the tissue,” Arend said. “It is a very unique device versus other methods of manual therapy and working the tissue, for example using your hands or metal instruments. So we’re able to achieve results with this working on tissue that traditional methods might not really be able to.”
