Prolotherapy is a nonsurgical procedure that stimulates and enhances the body’s healing process in strengthening and repairing injured joints and connective tissue. Simply put, Prolotherapy is a remedy used to treat connective tissue injuries—like tendons and ligaments—that have not healed on their own. So, when these connective tissues are stretched or torn, it can destabilize the joint, causing pain, laxity and improper movements of the joint.
Heal Ligaments
Ligaments help keep our joints stable. With repetitive use or injury, ligaments can become stretched and unstable. Prolotherapy helps to strengthen ligaments and provides longevity in sports and active lifestyles.
Repair Tendons
Tendons connect our muscles to bones. Over time they can become overused and weak. This is referred to as Tendinopathy. Prolotherapy helps the body to heal the tendons, allowing an athlete to perform at their best
Build Cartilage
It has recently been discovered that Prolotherapy can help in the treatment of Osteoarthritis. It helps the body to produce cartilage, thus reducing the pain of arthritis, especially when you first start having symptoms.
*If you are working with a lawyer and being treated on a lien basis, billing insurance, or worker’s comp, treatments will be billed at the regular price. If you are able to pay for the treatment at the time of service, you are eligible for the TOS Discount which offers significant savings. This is due to the fact that legal cases can take years to resolve, and insurance and worker’s comp automatically reduce payments to a fraction of what is billed.
Prolotherapy Conditions
Runner’s Knee (Chondromalacia Patella) – Runner’s Knee is another name for Chondromalacia Patella. It is a condition where the back of your knee cap, or patella, rubs against your knee and starts to break down. Often times people will feel grinding or crunchiness when they bend their knee. This grinding sound is called crepitus. Some people say it almost sounds like Rice Krispy Knee! It is always best to treat this early. You may start to feel the crepitus or grinding, but it doesn’t hurt. Don’t Ignore it! The sooner we treat it, the better results we have.
Early Onset Arthritis -You are too young to feel this old! Are you knees having a hard time keeping up with your active lifestyle? Are they stiff when getting up from the couch, or after a run or hitting the slopes? Do not wait until your knees are completely shot before you address the issue. We are seeing arthritis showing up in younger and younger populations, and research suggests that cortisone shots may be making the problem worse. There are ways to help to strengthen the knees and give them more years of being active. Don’t put it off, because if you ignore your knees, they will go away!
Patellar Tendonitis (Jumper’s Knee) -Do you have pain just below your knee cap? Does it get inflamed and irritated after activity? This is called “Jumper’s Knee”. This happens because that tendon is getting irritated and damaged. Your doctor may refer to it as a tendinopathy or patellar tendinosis. That means that there is damage that is starting to happen to that small, but very important tendon. Before taking anti-inflammatories or doing cortisone shots, we want to strengthen that tendon so it continues to do it’s job for years to come.
Do you have pain just below your knee cap? Does it get inflamed and irritated after activity? This is called “Jumper’s Knee”. This happens because that tendon is getting irritated and damaged. Your doctor may refer to it as a tendinopathy or patellar tendinosis. That means that there is damage that is starting to happen to that small, but very important tendon. Before taking anti-inflammatories or doing cortisone shots, we want to strengthen that tendon so it continues to do it’s job for years to come.
MCL strain -Your MCL and LCL are the ligaments on the inside and outside of your knee. They are there to stabilize the joint and keep it moving in the right direction. I see a lot of athletes in rugby, soccer, lacrosse, and football that get hit on the side of the knee, and this will strain the ligament causing excess movement or “laxity” in the knee. They will then try to overtrain the quads and muscles around the knee to make up or the instability. There is a better option. We can actually fix the original injury, strengthening the ligament and stabilizing the knee joint. This allows the knee to continue to function they way it is supposed and is not compensating by recruiting the surrounding muscles to make the knee stable.
LCL strain -Your MCL and LCL are the ligaments on the inside and outside of your knee. They are there to stabilize the joint and keep it moving in the right direction. I see a lot of athletes in rugby, soccer, lacrosse, and football that get hit on the side of the knee, and this will strain the ligament causing excess movement or “laxity” in the knee. They will then try to overtrain the quads and muscles around the knee to make up or the instability. There is a better option. We can actually fix the original injury, strengthening the ligament and stabilizing the knee joint. This allows the knee to continue to function they way it is supposed and is not compensating by recruiting the surrounding muscles to make the knee stable.
Osgood-Schlatter’s – This is most common in our younger athletes. As kids are going through a growth spurt, sometimes their bones grow so fast that the muscles have a hard time keeping up. This is especially true in the legs. Underneath the knee there is a bony prominence where the patellar tendon attaches. This can get irritated and the thigh muscles pull at that attachment and can be very uncomfortable. Prolotherapy has been proven to be an effective way to treat Osgood-Schlatter’s while still allowing the rising sport start to be active and making sure the knees stay strong and healthy.
IT Band Syndrome (ITBS) – There is so much confusion about ITBS. So many times I have people coming to me saying “my IT band is tight!”. While I understand what they mean, that is not a good way to describe that is happening. Then they foam roll and stretch the IT band trying to get it to loosen up, and that can cause more harm that do good. You’re IT Band is a long flat tendon-like structure on the outside of your thigh. It does not get “tight” like a muscle can. If it feels tight, that means the glute max or TFL muscles are pulling too much, cause tension and we need to focus and getting those muscles to relax. The other possible cause is rubbing on the outside of the knee where it IT Band attaches. This happens a lot with long distance runners and cyclists as a “repetitive use” (happens over and over again) injury, or when runners start working on speed work or hill training. for ITBS I generally recommend using Prolotherpy with electro-dry needling so that we get the muscles of the hip to relax and help repair the irritation at the attachment for the best long term results.
Frequently Asked Questions
Injection Series
Most of the time you need to do a series of injections to gain the most from prolotherapy. For mild to moderate injuries, 3 injections generally work well. You will want to have 3 to 4 weeks between each injection. For more severe injuries, you may need 5 injections. Doing dry needling between injections can also help with the healing but needs to be done at the appropriate time and more moderate in nature. Ask about of 9 week program for best results!
What is in an Injection?
The most common ingredient injected is dextrose at a concentration of 12.5% – 25%. Dextrose is a natural sugar that will cause an inflammatory response. This increases the circulation and brings with it oxygen and other nutrients to the area. While each provider can use a different formula, here at Prolotherapy of Denver, we use a combination of Dextrose, B12 (hydroxocobolamin), and Lidocaine (to ease the patient’s discomfit). By using natural substances that the body can recognize, it helps the body in healing and reduces the chance of a patient reacting to the injection.
We’re Here to Help
Prolotherapy of Denver is a judgment-free zone. We’ve all had those “what was I thinking” moments. We’re not here to make fun of you; we just want to help you get back out there, doing the things you love. Give us a call today and let us know how we can help you!