Physiotherapy
Physiotherapy is treatment to restore, maintain, and make the most of a patient’s mobility, function, and well-being. Physiotherapy helps through physical rehabilitation, injury prevention, and health and fitness.
When it hurts to move, and you live in St John’s, Mount Pearl, CBS or Conception Bay South….we’re here for you.
As a client of Monastery Health, you can count on our physiotherapists to provide a thorough assessment to determine the cause of your symptoms. We will work with you to determine the very best treatment options available. Contact us today to book your assessment with our skilled physiotherapists, or you may also book online!
Physiotherapy offers expertise in assessing muscle and joint dysfunction associated with trauma, pain conditions and disease; and the treatments needed to restore normal function.
When it’s to your benefit, we contribute to collaborative treatment to better inform and enhance your treatment plan. Such plans serve to stretch insurance benefits; and include any or all of massage therapy, laser therapy, acupuncture, kinesiology, medical foot care and nurse practitioner services.
Our services are generally provided in-clinic, but we can extend treatment to in-home or virtual measures to ensure best care for our clients.
Physiotherapy practice has morphed greatly over recent decades; from a focus on post surgery and post trauma care to degenerative conditions, repetitive strain injuries and dysfunction. There is always some trauma, but what brings most clients to a physio clinic is pain, related to tendonitis, bursitis, fasciitis, neuralgia, arthritis, degenerative disc disease, joint dysfunction, etc. These pain conditions are precipitated and/or prolonged by inactive lifestyles, too much sitting and medications (like NSAIDs) which alter the healing process, stress and poor sleep, etc.
As we observe this evolution in requirements, we can reflect on how practice has changed:
- The main fix for today’s pain conditions requires restoration of mind/muscle neural networks, which only the client can access. This differs from earlier physio practice, when early care focused on pain management, with the expectation that once healing was underway, a return to normal activity would allow normal recovery…because the neural connections were normal to start with. The significance of restoring the mind/muscle neural networks places clients at the center of care…only they can affect real change. It is very much an ‘own the crime and do the time’ sort of a scenario. Physiotherapy has the know-how. Clients must provide the done-now.
- There persists a requirement for managing early pain, and of making sure that injured tissues heal. Beyond the pain, it is quite impossible to exercise muscles that are in spasm to provide a protective splint for an associated injury. Related to early pain, but more appreciated in recent times, is the significance of poor sleep and stress on healing; and the appreciation of what physiotherapy can offer to improve the situation. In today’s practice, early care must be shared with other practitioners.
- What hasn’t changed is that a physio program is exercise-based. It requires close supervision, regular review and shared goals. What has changed is the extent of the assessment process; it needs to be broad based and not only focused on the site of injury. The repetitive strain injuries so prevalent today, may all have names, e.g sciatica, tennis elbow. But what causes these conditions differs from one person to another, and can include many, and variable, body parts. The exercise prescription also changes over time, both to accommodate for progressing the intensity of an exercise and to target muscle anomalies not identified during the initial assessment. The process of rehabbing injured or dysfunctional muscle is akin to peeling an onion – it has many layers.
- The entire rehab world is compromised and made complicated by poor extended health benefits, a rapidly escalating cost of living, and, so often, a prolonged healing process and/or recurring injuries.
For all these reasons, we strongly advocate for collaborative care…with clients who are informed and active participants in their treatment plans. We believe physiotherapy to be a key participant in any collaborative care plan designed to address pain with movement. With other practitioners at Monastery, we offer a one-stop treatment, in accessible, comfortable and clean surroundings; and the promise that we will talk together and work together to achieve your goals and best outcomes.
Laser Therapy, properly Photobiomodulation
Also known as low intensity laser, low level laser and photobiomodulation, it differs from all other laser applications because of the energy wavelengths. (Consider that sound energy waves enable hearing and hearing technologies; and ultraviolet energy is responsible for suntans and sunburns).
In a natural process, injured and diseased cells use red and infra-red light energy to repair cell damage and restore normal cell function and structure. This is similar to photosynthesis, the process through which light energy enables plant growth. While the process can affect all manner of cells within our bodies, most frequently it is muscle, nerve, bone, cartilage, ligament, fascia, tendon, blood and lymph cells that are targeted within a rehab context. It is also very useful in treating minor head injuries and contusions; and in improving sleep, especially when associated with neck and minor brain trauma.
It is very useful in pain management, and can significantly reduce or eliminate the requirement for pain medication in most rehab applications. The obvious way it accomplishes this is through accelerated healing. It can also directly target the dorsal horn nerve roots of the spinal cord to block transmission of pain messaging at that level.
We use photobiomodulation in the following situations:
- To accelerate healing following trauma and recent injury. Published research reports an average 40% acceleration, ensuring a strong, supple scar; an earlier start to the strengthening and conditioning components of a rehab program; and a reduced risk of re-injury. Of particular note is the repair of nerve cells, which is typically very slow. For example, injury to the sciatic nerve (which extends down the length of the leg) can take a year or more.
- To restart the healing process in situations of delayed or stalled healing, such as can occur with multi-site trauma such as MVA and sports injuries; and any time the healing process extends beyond the expected time frame associated with tissue injury. (Consider that muscle heals quickly, but ligaments and nerves much more slowly). It is wonderful to observe very old injuries that have caused many years of chronic pain respond, finally heal and become pain-free.
- To manage, delay and sometimes reverse degenerative and other progressive disease changes. This most commonly is used for arthritis. For instance, with knee arthritis, laser reduces the inflammation within the joint. This reduces pain and the need for medication: and improves mobility. In early and moderate stages of arthritis, it can also repair cartilage. Other less common examples where we can use photobiomodulation to manage pain and restore function are: gout, diabetic neuropathy, and lymphedema, etc
- For pain relief, when pain medication is poorly tolerated.
We have been providing laser therapy to residents of St John’s, Mount Pearl and Conception Bay South since 2009; and grow ever more pleased with the effect it has on client care. Our preferred use of this tremendous modality is as part of a collaborative treatment plan, involving one or more of our primary disciplines: physiotherapy, massage therapy, acupuncture and nursing. For maintenance and long term treatment plans, access is through physiotherapy or nursing; and requires occasional review.