Low Level Laser Therapy

It all started when…

Medical researchers began using laser biostimulation in the late 1960’s with low-powered laser beams that produced non-thermal effects on human tissue. The first reported cases involved slow-healing ulcers. The efficacy of this low-level laser therapy, or “LLLT,” is substantiated by objective research that continues.  Experimenting clinicians found that an 830 nm laser is optimal for treating chronic pain. An example of how LLLT works involves soft tissue trauma. These types of injuries consist of damage to the deep, sensitive layers of tissue beneath the epidermis, including muscular, neural, lymphatic, and vascular tissue

The human body normally reacts to this soft tissue trauma by “splinting” the injury with edema, a thin or watery fluid in tissue spaces or cell interstices. However, excess edema causes swelling that inhibits movement of the damaged tissue. These injuries result in two types of pain. The first is actual traumatic pain from the injury itself, and the second pain is from the swelling that results. LLLT focuses first on the lymphatic system which maintains the body’s fluid balance, while the laser light also helps absorb the excess edema. LLLT thus provides relief in two ways.