Are you a candidate for Prolotherapy?
There are three indicators, that if present, are strong support for Prolotherapy offering help to patients suffering from chronic pain. First- if there is a history of injury, even years before the onset of pain; Second- joint manipulation provides temporary relief of pain, even if only for a few hours; Third- a positive examination by a trained Prolotherapist. If these three criteria are met there is a very high probability that Prolotherapy will result in a significant reduction or elimination of chronic pain.
What kind of chronic pain can be treated?
Practically, wherever a joint can be injured, it can be treated with Prolotherapy. However, common problem areas treated are; whiplash injury, chronic low back pain, shoulder pain, arthritis, tennis elbow, plantar fasciitis, chronic knee, and ankle pain, and TMJ dysfunction to name a few. The patients that I see for these complaints have generally seen many other doctors and on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being severe pain, they are all above a 5. Yet, with that history, most see significant improvement from Prolotherapy. Also, the length of time since the injury is not a limiting factor to restarting the healing process.
Mechanism of Action
Multiple injections are given in and around the injury site with a very safe solution of dextrose and lidocaine. The solution at the injury site causes a low-grade inflammation to occur which the body recognizes as a new injury. This inflammation re-starts the healing process that initially was halted by anti-inflammatory medication or when not enough time was given for adequate healing at the time of injury.