If you have an injury that causes pain and inflammation, you may benefit from working with a healthcare professional, like a physical therapist or chiropractor, to help you recover. Your therapist may use a variety of treatments to help decrease your pain and improve blood flow to inflamed tissue. One such treatment is called cold laser therapy. Cold laser therapy is also known as low-level laser therapy (LLLT).
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This article helps you understand what cold laser therapy is and how it can be used to help treat injuries. It will also examine the research surrounding cold laser therapy to help you decide if it is something you should pursue for your specific injury.
Verywell / Theresa Chiechi
What Is Cold Laser Therapy?
Cold laser therapy is a type of treatment in which low-intensity light is applied to your body, typically over injured or inflamed tissue. The low-intensity light, referred to as "cold laser," is thought to improve blood flow and decrease pain and inflammation to injured tissues.
Cold laser therapy should not be confused with high-intensity laser that a surgeon may use to cut through tissues. The light-emitting diodes in cold laser therapy are not powerful enough to cut tissue, but they are strong enough to penetrate your skin and promote healing after injury.
How Cold Laser Therapy Works
Cold laser therapy uses light photons that are introduced to your skin with a wand that contains several light-emitting diodes. As the photons enter your skin and pass through injured tissue, chemical changes to the mitochondria of the cells occur, signaling them to increase the production of adenosine triphosphate. This is theorized to cause positive healing to those tissues.
But not just any light will work for this healing process to occur. Low-level laser therapy, typically at 600- to 1,000-nanometer wavelength, is best to increase blood flow and improve healing in injured tissues.
Types of Conditions Treated by Cold Therapy
Your healthcare provider may use cold laser therapy to treat a variety of conditions. These may include, but are not limited to:
Any soft tissue injury that causes pain or inflammation in your body may benefit from the use of cold laser therapy.
Pros and Cons of Cold Laser Therapy
When deciding to have cold last therapy for your injury, your healthcare provider should explain to you the goals of the treatment. Also, they should discuss with you the expected benefits and risks associated with cold laser therapy.
Pros of cold laser therapy include:
Risks to cold laser therapy are minimal, but you should understand them. Cons to having the procedure done may include:
Having realistic expectations of using cold laser therapy for your injury can help you make an informed decision as to whether to have the treatment or not.
What to Expect
If you and your healthcare provider choose to use cold laser therapy for your injury, it helps to understand what to expect during the treatment. During cold laser therapy, your affected body part will be exposed, and you and your healthcare provider may wear special goggles to shield your eyes during the treatment.
Then, a small wand with light-emitting diodes will be touched to your skin and held in place for a few seconds. The light will be applied to your affected skin and injury site for about 30 to 60 seconds.
You should not experience pain during treatment, and no heat is generated by the light. If you are experiencing any pain or symptoms, tell your provider, who may need to reposition your body or halt the treatment.
After treatment, you should also not feel pain or discomfort.
Many healthcare providers will have you perform gentle exercises for your condition to help improve the range of motion (capability of a joint to go through a spectrum of movements) and strength of your affected body part. Keep in mind that low-level laser therapy should be one part of your total rehab experience; research supports exercise and movement for many musculoskeletal injuries.
Effectiveness
When choosing to have cold laser therapy treatments, you should have an idea of the research surrounding the therapy. There is some research supporting the use of low-level lasers for back pain, neck pain, and tendonitis.
A meta-analysis (examining data from a large number of independent studies) found that cold laser treatments can have a positive effect on pain reduction in people with low back pain. The studies did not show an increase in functional movement, however.
Another meta-analysis found that joint pain can be lessened with the use of cold laser therapy. Again, no benefit was found of improving overall function in patients getting the treatment.
If you have tendonitis (inflammation of a tendon, which attaches muscle to bone) or tenosynovitis (inflammation of the tendon and the sheath surrounding it), your healthcare practitioner may choose to use laser therapy for you.
A meta-analysis of using cold laser therapy for tendinopathy concluded that "there is very-low-to-moderate quality evidence demonstrating that photobiomodulation (cold laser) has utility as a standalone and/or adjunct therapy for tendinopathy disorders."
Bottom Line
There is a mixed bag of scientific research indicating that cold laser therapy may be beneficial for pain relief in certain conditions. However, it may not be effective in improving function in musculoskeletal conditions. (And maybe the placebo effect is at play with some studies. Perhaps improvements in pain were found due to the patient getting any sort of treatment for their condition.)
Have a discussion with your healthcare provider before starting any cold laser treatments for your condition.
If you want to learn more, please visit our website Home Laser Therapy for Better Health.
There is some evidence that cold laser therapy helps decrease pain, but improvements in functional mobility are not typically seen with cold laser therapy as a standalone treatment.
Summary
If you are suffering from pain or limited motion due to a soft tissue, joint, or tendon injury, you may benefit from working with a physical therapist to return to normal activity. Your therapist may use a variety of treatments, and one may be cold laser therapy.
Cold laser therapy, also known as low-level light therapy, is a therapeutic modality used to improve healing and blood flow to injured tissues. It is a painless procedure, and it may be done as part of a well-rounded rehab program including exercise and functional mobility.
Cold laser therapy is a painless procedure involving the introduction of light of specific wavelengths to injured tissues. The light creates a photobiomodulation effect, increasing blood flow and speeding cellular processes to improve healing. If you are injured, ask your physician if cold laser therapy is right for your specific condition.
A Word From Verywell
Experiencing chronic pain affects every area of life. Thankfully, there are many different options to help reduce and manage pain. While research regarding cold laser treatments is limited, published data indicate that it may decrease pain for certain conditions, but it may not do much to improve function.
Pain management is usually multifaceted, so talk to your healthcare provider about additional rehabilitation techniques. They may decide to combine cold laser therapy with other treatments, including a physical therapy routine, medications, and different medical procedures.
How much does cold laser therapy cost?
A typical session of cold laser therapy costs between $75 and $100 and most insurance plans do not cover the service, as it is considered experimental.
Learn More
The Definition of Medical Necessity in Health Insurance
How long does it take for cold laser therapy to work?
Most people experience some relief after three to five sessions of cold laser therapy. Some conditions require up to 20 treatments to achieve full effectiveness.
As technology continues to advance, more and more options are becoming available for the treatment of health problems. As amazing as all of these advancements in the healthcare sector are, some of the most effective treatment options have actually been around for decades now. Laser therapy is one of these not-so-recent treatment options. This process yields a plethora of benefits for our biological systems.
Like everything else, there are some drawbacks to laser therapy, with the most disadvantageous aspects being the fact that you often have to go through multiple sessions before the benefits take place. It is not a one-and-done type of treatment method, but even so, when you stay consistent, the positive results speak for themselves.
Before we dive into 15 ways that it can improve your overall well being, let's first define laser therapy so that everyone understands what the process entails.
Like many other types of medical treatment options, laser therapy is a tool that health professionals utilize in order to help their patients heal from injuries, illnesses, or other health-related concerns. Essentially, a laser beam is strategically pinpointed at the source of the health problem. The wavelength of the light source is tailored to the situation.
From removing cancerous tumors and resolving kidney stones, to assisting with nerve pain and improving overall visual abilities, laser therapy is an excellent treatment option for a wide array of health problems. Now, it cannot treat everything under the sun, but it comes pretty close to being a universal treatment method.
Everyone's health history is unique. It's important that you consult with your doctor and receive their opinion on laser therapy before you undergo the process. If you and your doctor decide it can make a positive difference for you and your overall well being, then you will likely get to experience the biological benefits of laser therapy.
So, what exactly are these impressive biological benefits that laser therapy causes? There are plenty to choose from. Today we are going to focus on 15 ways that it can improve your health.
Now that we have defined laser therapy and offered you a closer look at what the procedure typically entails, let's explore the fifteen ways that it positively affects our internal processes. Not only is this process known for its myriad of health benefits, but it can also be applied to a lot of different health-related situations.
In other words, laser therapy is multi-faceted. Doctors can utilize it in many situations, like when they need to help minimize the likelihood of a scar forming after a patient undergoes surgery on their arm. It is also an amazing tool in situations where patients are experiencing numbness as a result of dysfunction in their nervous system.
These are only two examples that display the ways that laser therapy is biologically effective, and there are so many more worth talking about. Fifteen ways that it can improve your health on a biological level include'
Activates the healing process
Leads to heightened collagen production
Aids in the recovery of damaged nerves
Regenerates cell growth after death of tissue
Assists in the reparation process of cells
Excellent for use in acupuncture
Minimizes skeletal discomfort using trigger points
Helps the body to relearn how to regulate itself
Assists in the maintenance of the immune system
Increases the productivity of the vascular system
Lowers your chances of long-lasting scars following skin damage
Improves general metabolic processes
Eliminates numbness and returns feeling to damaged limbs
Reduces overall physical pain levels
Works to fight inflammation
Are you intrigued by laser therapy and interested in attending a consultation for yourself? If you want to learn more about how it can help you, and you happen to live in the NYC area, then we have the best doctor for you! Dr. E. also offers laser nail treatment in Brooklyn to treat toenail fungus.
Dr. E is a foot specialist who treats patients all over the greater New York City area. Whether you live in Manhattan, spend your time in Brooklyn, or are most often in the neighborhood of Jamaica, the best foot doctor in NYC is Dr. E!
If you are a new patient, we ask that you take a look at our new patient form before coming in to see us. If you have any questions, feel free to call us at (718) 873-. We look forward to hearing from you and discussing how laser therapy could improve your life!
If you are looking for more details, kindly visit Low Level Laser Therapy.