Trigger Point Injections

What are trigger points?

Trigger points are knotted areas of your muscles that cause ongoing pain, most often in your back, shoulders, and neck. Muscle knots are often tender and painful, especially when you put pressure on them.

These knots are actually areas of muscles that cramp up, cutting off beneficial blood flow. As a result, your soft tissue becomes irritated and inflamed.

Trigger point pain can be an ongoing cycle and, without customized treatment, can leave you feeling uncomfortable for extended periods of time.

What conditions can trigger point injections treat?

Trigger point injections can be beneficial for treating tension-induced headaches and general muscle pain in your:

• Arms
• Legs
• Neck
• Lower back

Your Pain Medicine Consultants provider may recommend trigger point injections if you have fibromyalgia or frequent, painful headaches.

How do trigger point injections work?

During a trigger point injection, your Pain Medicine Consultants provider administers an anesthetic and a corticosteroid using a small needle. They insert the needle directly into the knotted area of the muscle, or trigger point.

Your provider may create a treatment plan that involves multiple injections into different trigger points in your body. The injections only take a few minutes and can provide significant relief shortly after treatment.

What are the benefits of trigger point injections?

Trigger point injections are an effective therapy for addressing pain at its source. You may benefit from trigger point injections in addition to other therapies designed to release muscle knots, such as massage therapy and acupuncture.

If you have allergies or an intolerance to medications commonly used in trigger point injections, your provider can employ dry needling, a technique that uses a needle but no medication to break up muscle knots. This dry technique can also help improve blood flow to the muscles and surrounding tissue, further reducing your pain.

Another benefit of trigger point therapy is that it’s often effective in relieving your pain when other treatments have failed.

If your muscles always feel tight and you suffer pain in your neck, shoulders, or back as a result, it may be time to consider the benefits of trigger point injections. Schedule a consultation at Pain Medicine Consultants online or by phone today.