7 Benefits of Trigger Point Injections

Have you been experiencing a lot of pain, specifically localized muscle pain? Is it interfering with your everyday life?

If so, you may be experiencing trigger point pain. Trigger point pain is when tight muscle fibers form in your muscles after an injury or simple overuse. It can be painful and annoying, but luckily you can get trigger point injections to help.

In this guide, we'll walk you through everything you need to know about these injections and what they can do for you and your pain. Keep reading to learn how to turn your life around.

What Is a Trigger Point Injection?

Trigger point injections are meant to treat chronic muscle pain relating to myofascial trigger points. These are sensitive bundles of fiber tissues banded together into a muscle.

These injections are given directly into the myofascial trigger points.

There are various types of injections for trigger point pain. These can include:

• A local anesthetic that blocks pain receptors
• A corticosteroid to reduce inflammation in the muscle
• Botox, which can interfere with nerve signaling pathways

The type of injection you receive depends greatly on what your doctor feels will help you the most. Having an open and honest conversation with them before receiving an injection is vital.

Benefits of Trigger Point Injections

There are so many benefits of trigger point injections, from reducing back pain and neck pain to having low risks of side effects. You honestly cannot go wrong with getting a trigger point injection. Here is a bit more about the benefits of getting the injections.

1. Pain Relief

One of the most apparent benefits of getting trigger point injections is to relieve pain. When you have chronic pain, it can interfere with your everyday life and make you pretty miserable.

By getting the injections, you can feel relief throughout your entire body. When it is injected in the area of the pain, while that pain subsides, the rest of your body also relaxes since it compensates for the pain it feels elsewhere.

When your body starts to relax, you can return to your everyday life without experiencing pain every day!

You can talk to your doctor about how often to receive the trigger point injections to help keep your pain at bay.

2. Low-Risk Side Effects

Another great thing about these injections is that they have little to no side effects, and the ones they do have are low risk. In reality, you can't do anything in life without having side effects!

Here is what you may experience after a trigger point injection:

• Soreness or numbness in the injection area

That's about it! They are nonsurgical and noninvasive, so they do not have many side effects.

3. No Downtime

After many procedures, shots, or injections, there may be some downside. However, that is not the case with trigger point injections.

These come with little to no downtime.

Once you get the injection, you can continue your day as you usually would. That means if you have to go to work, you can. If you want to go to the beach, you can do that, too.

After the injection, you may even realize that you need less downtime because you can get back to doing the things you love without the pain you have been experiencing! This is especially true with patients who experience migraines and headaches due to trigger point pain.

4. Versatile

There are many reasons to get trigger point injections. They treat many different conditions; it's not just one type of pain it treats.

They can actually treat pain as well as health conditions. For instance, the trigger point injections can help with the following:

• Back and neck pain
• Carpal tunnel syndrome
• Temporomandibular joint pain (TMJ)
• Fibromyalgia symptoms
• Osteoarthritis
• Sciatica

These injections can also help with sports injuries.

5. Can Work Alongside Other Treatment Options

Another great thing about these injections is that they can be used in conjunction with other therapies. You can try out physical therapy, acupuncture, and massages, or make other lifestyle changes like adding yoga into your daily routine.

Using these different treatment options, along with the injections, can help with the pain and healing process.

What to Do After the Injections

After you receive a trigger point injection, you can use the muscle that was treated right away—again, there is no downtime! However, you will want to refrain from doing any strenuous activity for a few days.

Typically, you can expect to have pain relief for about 24 hours to 72 hours after the injection. Sometimes, pain relief can last up to a month with the injection.

Depending on what is in the injection, you can do it relatively frequently to reduce the pain you experience.

Getting Trigger Point Injections

No one wants to go through life with chronic pain every single day. It gets in the way and can become highly unpleasant.

If you have been experiencing trigger point pain, getting trigger point injections can drastically reduce the pain you feel on a daily basis. There are so many benefits in addition to reducing pain as well!

If you are ready to get rid of the pain, you can schedule an appointment with us at AZ Pain Doctors. We will discuss what you need to get rid of your chronic pain. With our office full of double-board certified doctors in anesthesiology and pain management, we have your back (both literally and figuratively).

Get started today.