Scar Tissue – the silent pain generator
As most of you may know just by browsing through my website, I am an Active Release Technique (ART) practitioner. If you don’t know what ART is used for, let me enlighten you.
With most long standing injuries, the underlying factor is usually scar tissue. Whether your injury was acute/traumatic or repetitive in nature, the body will lay down scar tissue to protect the tissues for the initial phase of tissue healing. After the muscle or tissue has healed, that scar tissue remains. Now this would not normally pose an issue, but if the scar tissue is continuing to impede normal bloodflow to the tissues and preventing full range-of-motion then pain and decreased strength ensues.
My job is to reduce that scar tissue with ART and your job is to prevent the activity or event that caused the injury in the first place. So let’s say you injured yourself from hours and hours in front of a desk. I can help reduce your scar, but until you fix your posture at work, the scar tissue will return. On the flip side, if you’ve ever had a traumatic injury, such as a whip lash, and the pain never fully went away then you could be dealing with underlying scar tissue.
This scar tissue I am referring to can’t be seen on any imaging because usually it is not dense enough to be picked up on MRI. So how do I find it? Usually from your history of chief complaint and by feeling the tissues in question. The fibers with scar tissue will feel different to me as I palpate the site of original injury.
So if you’ve had a long-standing issue that never fully resolved consider that you may be victim to the silent pain generator – scar tissue.
I am here to help.
Dr. Clark
