"We’ve just entered into what we call our pain laser room here at the Castle Pines office. What we’re working on today is a patient who has a left foot plantar fasciitis. The pain laser, which is referred to as the MLS Pain Laser - MLS stands for Multi-wave Locked System. I don’t expect everyone to know all of the technology, but essentially what that means is that there are two different laser frequencies that are being delivered from the robotic head. Essentially these are infrared, so we won’t be able to see them with the naked eye, but the two frequencies target two different areas and that’s what makes this system so special.
One laser frequency targets the pain receptors, so it starts to really stop the pain process and calm down the painful symptoms. The second laser frequency targets the inflammatory cells, and this is a crucial component because if we think about it, inflammatory cells, if they are active they will inhibit the new blood flow and the new healing response. When we are able to hinder those inflammatory cells by use of the laser, we’re promoting new blood flow into the area which is going to promote healing.
You can see that in this case we have the large robotic head that is moving around and mapping an area where we are having some tendonitis up in the gastroc muscle and where it becomes the Achilles tendon. Whereas we also have the probe down directly along the plantar fascial band and on the heel at the plantar fascial band origin, so we’re able to use both modalities to work in two different areas at the same time to calm down that inflammation. Now, as I said, this technology has been around for a while, but it’s new to our office here and we’ve been seeing great success with it. Our physical therapy department, Castle Pines Physical Therapy, has also found that it has been a great adjunct tool, not only in the foot and ankle but in other areas of the body. Rotator cuff injuries, neck injuries, lower back injuries - our physical therapists use this as an adjunct to help treat those areas to more expeditiously get you on track to the activities you desire.
In the foot and ankle, we use this a lot for tendonitis with the Achilles and other areas, but also plantar fasciitis, with chronic arthritis, the various capabilities we’re just starting to breach the iceberg there.
There are some contraindications, pregnancy is a contraindication as well as various medications and anticoagulants. In our patients, with these indications or conditions we often don’t use the pain laser. Over the past 8 months since we’ve had the laser, we have been keeping track of our success and it is very high in the office here. If you feel like you might be a great candidate for the pain laser, feel free to make an appointment, either with our physical therapy department or with the podiatry department and we will get you set up and evaluated to see if this is a great modality for your care.
In addition to treating some of the non-surgical conditions, we have also found that use of the pain laser after surgery such as bunions or fusions of joints in the foot has helped to increase blood flow and increase the initial stages of bone healing. This makes your recovery time less painful and more speedy, which will get you back to activities you like a little bit faster.
It’s very relaxing, it’s almost like a spa treatment. You just come in and you are in a very comfortable position. They put some pain laser on you and you don’t even feel it - I sit there and I either read or I’m on my phone and it’s ten minutes and it’s done. Sometimes you’ll even walk out of the office feeling immediately better."