5 Reasons to Consider Trigger Point Injections

When chronic muscle tension leaves you with tender, hypersensitive knots that make you feel painfully stiff, you want fast relief. Here’s how minimally invasive trigger point injection therapy can help.

At Interventional Sports and Pain Management Associates in Humble and Baytown, Texas, our main goal is to relieve your chronic pain so you can get back to your active life. If your pain is due to tender, hypersensitive “knots” in your muscles, trigger point injections (TPIs) can be an ideal solution.

Board-certified pain management specialist Dr. Okezie N. Okezie discusses the ins and outs of TPI therapy, including five reasons to consider trigger point injections in your pain management plan.

Muscle tension and myofascial pain

Excessive muscle tension is a common source of chronic pain. Many factors — ranging from injury, repetitive strain, and poor posture to lack of activity and high stress levels — can lead to ongoing muscle tension.

Without early intervention, persistent muscle tension can snowball into myofascial pain syndrome, leading to hypersensitive knots, or trigger points, in the protective band of connective tissue (fascia) that covers your muscles.

When a muscle and its overlying fascia are inflamed with trigger points, the tiny knots can become increasingly tense until they “freeze,” staying stuck in a painfully contracted state.

How trigger point injections can help

Trigger point injection (TPI) therapy is a minimally invasive pain relief procedure that uses a targeted anesthetic mixture to relax tender myofascial knots and break the cycle of discomfort brought on by unrelenting trigger point pain.

After sterilizing your skin, Dr. Okezie gently pinches the trigger point to hold it stable. Next, he carefully loosens the knot by inserting and retracting the injection needle from multiple angles (a technique called dry needling).

You’ll feel your trigger point spasm as it relaxes. Once it stops twitching, Dr. Okezie injects a local anesthetic (pain reliever) along with an anti-inflammatory medication (corticosteroid) or a muscle relaxant (botulinum toxin). Most people experience rapid, sustained pain relief.

How TPI therapy can benefit you

If your chronic pain condition stems from or includes muscle tension and myofascial trigger points, TPIs can be an invaluable step toward lasting relief. Here are five reasons to consider incorporating them in your pain management plan:

1. Fast, targeted pain relief

Unlike oral pain relievers, which must be metabolized and circulated throughout your body to take effect, TPIs deliver anesthetic and anti-inflammatory medications directly to the source of your pain, providing rapid, highly targeted relief that starts easing pain sensations within minutes.

2. Relief from referred pain

TPI therapy alleviates acute trigger point pain and referred pain, or the radiating discomfort that trigger points can cause. For example, a persistent knot in the shoulder or neck might give rise to chronic tension headaches. These targeted injections deactivate the trigger point, breaking the cycle of radiating discomfort.

3. Supportive applications

TPI therapy is especially effective at alleviating acute and referred trigger point pain in the neck, shoulders, arms, legs, and lower back. It’s also helpful for managing separate pain conditions that often co-occur with chronic muscle tension and myofascial knotting, from persistent back and neck pain to fibromyalgia and migraine pain.

4. Quick return to function

Trigger points can restrict movement and range of motion, causing the affected muscle to lose strength and flexibility — and forcing you to compensate with other muscles. By fully loosening and relaxing these tight, frozen fibers, TPIs help restore muscle flexibility so you can move more easily and progress faster in physical therapy.

5. No post-treatment downtime

TPI therapy is minimally invasive and maximally effective: In a short, 30-minute office visit that only involves a few injections with a small needle, you can get rapid relief from persistent trigger point pain. Even better, there’s zero post-treatment downtime, so you can resume your normal routine afterward.

Chronic pain relief in Houston, Texas

Do you have tender trigger points that leave you feeling uncomfortably stiff and tense? TPIs can loosen your myofascial knots, ease your pain, and help you feel like yourself again.

To learn more, schedule a visit to your nearest Interventional Sports and Pain Management Associates office in Humble or Baytown, Texas, today.