Did you know that heel pain is the number one reason patients seek medical attention from a doctor that specializes in foot and ankle pain? That’s according to Podiatry Today, which also says about 70-90% of treatments for heel pain are successful.

However, the problem is that the recovery from surgery can be long and painful. And roughly 20-30% of the patients end up with chronic heel pain even after treatment. Traditional treatments, also according to Podiatry Today, become “less predictable, more costly.”

And that’s where extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ESWT) comes in.

The Stunning Difference ESWT Makes Versus Surgery

Even though you may not have heard of ESWT, also known as EPAT, it’s been available in the United States since 2000. According to the same article in Podiatry Today, the authors who performed a study compared a group that received surgery for plantar fasciitis to a group that used ESWT for the same condition.

Success rates were almost identical: 82% for the group receiving ESWT and 83% for the group receiving surgery.

The big difference? The group that received ESWT “returned to work and activities of daily life nearly immediately.”

They didn’t mention the precise recovery timeframe for the surgical group. However, a commonly accepted standard in the medical community is a recovery time of 2 to 3 weeks for traditional open surgery and 3 to 6 weeks for endoscopic surgery.

How Does ESWT Work?

First of all, the entire procedure is non-invasive. You’re not cut open. Nothing goes into your body.

Gel is applied to your skin. An electrical probe is applied to the same area. An electrical charge is created. You may need some anesthetic if your treatment requires high energy waves. During your treatment, you experience an energy wave that focuses on the specific area of your foot to be treated.

Depending on the severity of your injury, you may need more than one session to recover from the injury.

Medical experts aren’t 100% sure why this works. But they believe it improves blood flow to the affected area of your foot. And that encourages your body to repair itself.

No Surgery, Much Less Pain and Discomfort, And A Fast Recovery

At the end of the day, this is why you would choose the ESWT treatment.

North Texas Foot and Ankle alternates use of a ESWT machine with another practice by month…but only we have the machine until the end of this month. So if you have tendonitis or plantar fasciitis, now’s your chance to treat both conditions without any painful or frightening surgery. And you get a fast recovery too. Call us at 214-574-9255 to schedule your appointment today.