TENS places sticky pads on the skin and sends a mild electrical tingle that turns down pain signals from a sore joint or tendon. In our physiotherapy visits it is the last, calming step, and it can lower how much pain medicine you lean on.
Your physician orders this treatment and sets its strength. You receive it only when it is written on your orders.
What is TENS (gentle electrical stimulation)?
Pads go on the skin around the painful area and connect to a small unit that makes a steady tingle. It closes out the visit.
How does it help a joint or tendon?
The tingle rides the same nerve pathways as pain and crowds the pain message out. Many people notice the pain easing while it runs and for some time afterward.
What does it feel like?
A firm, comfortable tingle that should never hurt. You keep a call button in hand, and your technician looks in on you at the 5-minute mark.
Who should not have it?
- A pacemaker or an implanted stimulator
- The belly or lower back during pregnancy
- Placement on the throat, near the eyes or over the chest
- Broken skin or a blood clot
- Pads on the head or neck when there is any history of seizures
At the start of each visit your technician reads the safety questions aloud. If something has changed, the physician makes the call before anything starts. You may ask to stop at any point.
How long does it take?
About 15 minutes.
What to remember
- Firm but comfortable; never painful.
- Press the call button if anything changes.
- Pads never go on the throat or over the chest.
Show us you have it: Point out where the pads may go on your body and where they must never go. Anything still unclear? Ask, and we will go over it with you again.
Keep reading: how we think about pain medicine, the home TENS unit.
Other treatments in the program
It belongs to the physiotherapy program for PRP and joint care at PRP STL. A physician orders and watches over every treatment, and nothing starts unless one can step in right away.
Ask whether this belongs in your plan
Your physician looks at the joint or tendon, your metabolic health and what you have already tried, then builds the plan around you. Book an evaluation or get the free guide.
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St. Louis, MO 63044