Treatments

Hot And Cold

Hot and Cold Therapy

Hot and Cold Therapy

Hot or Cold Therapy in Miami

If you have been involved in a car accident, sustained a sports injury or are living with a chronic pain condition, you might be struggling with a great deal of pain and limited mobility.

Unfortunately, the sustained injury or medical condition might not only be affecting your range of motion, but it could be damaging your emotional wellbeing. There are, however, many superb treatment options to improve your quality of life.

Hot and Cold Therapy Hot and Cold Therapy Hot and Cold Therapy

Both heat and cold therapies have the potential to ease aching pain in the muscles and joints. While either heat or cold therapy can prove effective, a combination of the two could also help to alleviate pain and discomfort, as they could significantly improve a person’s blood flow to their injured area. Learn more about the benefits of alternating hot and cold therapy for pain and the different options available.

How Alternating Hot and Cold Therapy for Pain Works

Cold and heat can benefit your body in different ways. For instance, applying a cold compress onto an injury site will decrease a person’s blood flow and consequently reduce inflammation, which can lower their pain levels. However, applying heat can support blood flow. By using both cold and heat following an injury, you could experience a decreased level of pain and heal at a faster rate.

Moist Heat Therapy

Moist heat therapy is another popular option for treating conditions that cause much muscular discomfort, stiffness, or muscle spasms. For example, it could potentially ease symptoms for people living with the following conditions:

  • Chronic arthritis
  • Acute temporomandibular joint (TMJ) issues
  • Ankylosing spondylitis

However, as the treatment option has been designed to improve a person’s circulation and increase the skin temperature, it will not be used if a patient is experiencing inflammation or swelling.

Cryotherapy

If you are struggling with a painful neck or back injury, you could benefit from cryotherapy, which is the official term for ice or cold therapy. It will require a patient to experience freezing or near-freezing temperatures, which can help to reduce swelling and inflammation in the body.

For example, applying an ice pack to an acute injury site could relieve pain once the treatment is over. It is a safe, non-invasive treatment option that can alleviate and prevent painful injuries, such as a herniated disc. Cryotherapy has, therefore, proved effective for treating people with various conditions, such as chronic pain or sports injuries.

Paraffin Bath Therapy

Anyone struggling with joint pain and stiffness in their hands and/or feet could benefit from paraffin bath therapy. Patients will be required to submerge themselves into a small tub that will be filled with paraffin wax, which will offer a soothing heat to reduce inflammation and, as a result, ease their pain.

A therapist will also help to submerge the painful area into the paraffin wax and will then remove it. They will then repeat the process until the site is coated with a wax layer that is between five to ten millimeters thick. Once satisfied, they will wrap it with a material to retain the heat and to ensure the wax is undisturbed.

The radiating heat will then soak into the area, which could decrease inflammation and provide great comfort. A physical therapist will then remove the wrap and peel away the wax coating, and you could immediately experience little pain or discomfort in your joints and muscles, as well as smoother skin.

People who might benefit from a paraffin bath therapy treatment could include those living with:

  • Osteoarthritis
  • Fibromyalgia
  • Rheumatoid arthritis
  • Sports injuries
  • Repetitive stress injuries
  • Scleroderma

It is also possible that a physical therapist might recommend purchasing a paraffin bath for your home, which will allow you to routinely alleviate a condition or injury’s painful symptoms.

Why Turn to Icon Medical Centers?

If you have been involved in a car accident, sustained an injury during a sport or exercise, or are living with a short- or long-term chronic pain condition, you shouldn’t suffer in silence, as there are superb treatment options available to help you manage or eradicate pain.

Never attempt to push through the pain, which could lead to further injury or reduce your quality of life. To ease your pain and restore your mobility, you could benefit from physical therapy, chiropractic care and/or massage therapy.

At Icon Medical Centers, we only work with specially-trained, knowledgeable medical professionals, who can successfully identify the treatment options you will need to recover from an injury or to ease a painful condition. Our medical practitioners could devise a hot and cold packs physical therapy program to complement your requirements, which could feature paraffin bath therapy, cryotherapy or moist heat therapy.

Whether you need hot and cold therapy for back pain, hot and cold therapy for shoulder pain, hot cold therapy for muscle strain, or hot cold therapy for a pinched nerve, our dedicated medical team at Icon Medical Centers has your back. If you are living with neck pain, back pain, sciatica, arthritis, a sprain, strain or another painful injury, you could make a quick recovery by making an appointment at our Hollywood or Miami clinic to treat your specific injury.