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).
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.
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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.
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.
Low Level Laser Therapy, also known as Cold Laser Therapy, is something you may have heard of when searching for non-invasive pain relief and treatment methods. It can seem iffy to some people ' after all, it uses lasers, which are known to be able to cut through tissue, and it is a fairly new treatment. This makes people wonder whether or not Low Level Laser Therapy works and if it's a treatment method that you can trust.
Over studies have been published all over the world that show LLLT is safe. Low Level Laser Therapy works to treat a wide array of issues, including pain relief, decreased inflammation, sped up bone repair, and more. Here's what you need to know about Low Level Laser Therapy and how it works.
Low Level Laser Therapy (LLLT) goes by several other names, including: cold laser therapy, soft laser therapy, low intensity light therapy, and photobiomodulation (PBMT). This type of laser is different from what surgeons use ' you don't need to worry about it cutting through your tissues. This is because it operates at a lower wavelength, so it doesn't emit heat like higher intensity lasers do, hence why LLLT is often referred to as cold laser therapy.
LLLT is a type of treatment that uses light radiation in order to accelerate your body's natural healing process. While Low Level Laser Therapy works with lasers that aren't strong enough to cut your skin, they are strong enough to penetrate it, which helps them improve your blood flow, decrease inflammation, and promote healing after an injury.
Low Level Laser Therapy works by beaming light energy over the skin of the affected area of your body in order to stimulate your cells' mitochondria (the powerhouse). When the mitochondria absorbs the particles of light from the laser, this gives it an energy boost. Through the process of light passing through your skin and being absorbed, this fuels the cellular processes in your body, which thus triggers chemical changes to help your tissues regrow and heal, as well as help damaged cells.
There is no damage to your healthy tissue or cells with LLLT. Think of the process of how Low Level Laser Therapy works as similar to photosynthesis ' plants absorb sunlight in order to convert it into energy so they can grow, right? When your cells absorb the light energy from the cold laser, it then uses that to increase intracellular metabolism. This results in effects such as: reduced pain, improved tissue growth, improved circulation, better cell communication, and more.
Low Level Laser Therapy works to treat quite a few different conditions, including:
This treatment method is on the rise for good reason as more and more studies are done to show its effectiveness and more and more people learn about the benefits of cold laser therapy. Some of the benefits of LLLT include:
As you can see, there are many benefits of Low Level Laser Therapy. It's important to note that while some people notice immediate relief, it can take several treatments in order to see how Low Level Laser Therapy works to promote your body's natural healing process and find long-lasting relief. Results of LLLT vary depending on the cause of your pain, any other health conditions that you have, and the approach and dose used. LLLT shouldn't be done if you are pregnant or if you have cancer or epilepsy.
Health And Wellness Clinic offer Low Level Laser Therapy among our treatment options. Our chiropractors are trained in how to use this treatment method. Our treatments don't take very long, but over time, they can provide you with long-lasting relief that can help you to avoid surgery and treat the root cause of your pain. Contact us today to learn more!
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