What is Low-Level Laser Therapy (LLLT)?
LLLT is a painless, sterile, non-invasive, drug-free treatment which is used in treating a variety of pain syndromes, injuries, wounds, fractures, neurological conditions, and pathologies. Laser therapy can be used any time a patient requests or needs a drug-less procedure for the control of pain, when conventional therapies have been ineffective, or when the acceleration of healing from injuries is desired.
Around the world, laser therapy is rapidly becoming a medical therapy that can heal wounds and fractures up to 60% faster and also reduce the cost of treatment for many conditions. In the United Kingdom, LLLT has become the treatment of choice for soft tissue whiplash injuries and for the treatment of painful Postherpetic Neuralgia (shingles pain).
How does laser light heal?
Healing with the use of light is not new. Light therapy was reported to be effective for many conditions by Hippocrates. With the development of the laser and its special properties, using light as a treatment has gained more popularity. This is because we can now use specific wavelengths of light and give accurately measured doses of energy directly to the appropriate treatment site, which was not possible with other light sources.
Low-level lasers supply energy to the body in the form of non-thermal photons of light. Light is transmitted through the skin’s layers (the dermis, epidermis and the subcutaneous tissue of tissue fat under the skin) at all wavelengths in the visible range. However, light waves in the near infrared ranges penetrate the deepest of all light waves in the visible spectrum. When low-level laser light waves penetrate deeply into the skin, they optimize the immune responses of blood. This has both anti-inflammatory and immunostimulant effects. It is a scientific fact that light transmitted to the blood in this way has positive effects throughout the whole body, supplying vital oxygen and energy to every cell.
