Whether you are an avid athlete, a parent chasing their kids around all day, or just someone who thrives on an active lifestyle, heel pain can affect everyone and prove to be a significant obstacle to your mobility, motivation, and life overall. Fortunately, Dr. Dailey offers many treatment methods to address heel pain.
Our advanced treatments are non-invasive, don't involve surgery, and work for you even if you are a long-time heel pain sufferer. One option available to patients at Freeland Foot and Ankle Clinic is Extracorporeal Pulse Active Technology, also known as EPAT.
What Is EPAT?
EPAT is a specialized treatment that uses ranges and frequencies of pressure waves to stimulate the body’s natural healing process. Pressure waves are sent through the body at the site of your pain using a range of frequencies. This provides a disruption of the tissues in the area and can produce the following:
- The body responds to the aggravation by activating cellular repair activities in damaged cells. This can help speed healing already occurring or jump-start recovery in more chronic cases.
- Blood flow to the area increases, increasing oxygen and other healing factors to the cells that need it most.
- Immune response to the area increases, which, along with increased circulation, can help decrease inflammation.
This treatment tends to be carried out over several scheduled sessions for maximum results, although many patients have reported decreased pain after the first visit.
Who Can EPAT Help?
EPAT can be a useful option for active people suffering from soft tissue injuries such as plantar fasciitis or Achilles tendonitis. It can help accelerate healing and reduce inflammation, getting athletes back to doing what they love sooner and safer.
If you have suffered from heel pain for weeks, months, or even years, EPAT can be beneficial and give you the results you've been waiting for. Waiting to seek treatment doesn't mean you're hopeless. EPAT and our other advanced, non-invasive treatments for heel pain can provide you with relief and the freedom to be active and pain-free.
Of course, we will conduct a complete evaluation of your condition and provide educated recommendations on the treatment methods that may be best for your situation and specific needs.
How Would I Prepare for EPAT?
No prior preparations are needed aside from a short appointment with Dr. Dailey, which will include an x-ray to rule out any fractures before your treatment. That being said, the treatments themselves can be carried out by any of our talented, compassionate medical assistants, which allows for even greater flexibility in scheduling.
However, one element you should know beforehand is that there may be some discomfort involved with the procedure itself. The good news is that we can adjust the level of the treatment so that it remains within a threshold you can accept. Higher levels tend to be more effective, but we can work with you to gradually build it up over sessions in a way that doesn’t cause you too much discomfort.
Rid Yourself of Heel Pain with the Help of a Local Podiatrist
Even if you have tried one or two ways of dealing with your pain in the past, only to find no results, that does not mean your hopes are sunk. Far from it! In the vast majority of cases, understanding the source of the problem is the first and most crucial step—and that’s what we do! If you would like to learn more about heel pain, we have a downloadable guide for you: Free Yourself from Heel Pain: A Guide to Understanding Its Causes and Treatments.
If you have any more questions about EPAT itself, we would be happy to help you find answers. Give us a call at (989) 695-6788 or contact us online to schedule your appointment today.