Ultrasound is a very gentle and soothing treatment that uses very high pitched sound to stimulate the tissues of your body to heal. The technology that's used to image soft tissue traumas and babies in the womb is the same but obviously uses far lower levels of power!

During treatment a metal ultrasound treatment head is slowly massaged over the problem area for 1 to 10 minutes depending upon the area being treated and a clear gel is used to lubricate the treatment head and transmit the ultrasound into the tissues.

Despite the gentle nature of ultrasound therapy, it has a very profound effect on the tissues to a depth of up to 15cm! You may experience a reaction to this treatment which is normal and is explained below.

Ultrasound can be used to treat many problems but the tissue that best absorbs ultrasound and is therefore most effectively treated by it is collagen (a fibrous protein) which forms ligaments, tendons and scar tissue.

It was once thought that when ultrasound enters the tissues it caused the cells to vibrate which 'pumped the inflammation away'. There is however no evidence at all that this is the case in fact it has been shown that the ultrasound actually makes the cells metabolism work faster and therefore increases inflammation! This might sound counter-intuitive until you realise that inflammation and healing are essential parts of the same process. So when you feel pain after a treatment (of any sort), that's actually the healing process doing its job. After a few days your body has 'recovered' and is ready for another treatment, which is why sometimes it's a good idea to have 2 treatments per week for a while.

For further information about ultrasound go to http://www.electrotherapy.org