Sound, light and air

Chapter 3

Sound, light and air

5 topics

  1. 14Therapeutic ultrasound. Physical characteristics and biological mechanisms. Continuous and pulsed modes. Application techniques, dosage, indications, contraindications, and safety considerationsSound too high to hear, used to heat and to shake tissue. How a crystal makes it, why it needs gel, which tissues absorb it, what continuous and pulsed beams do, how the head is moved and the dose chosen, what it can and cannot treat, and where it must never be aimed.
  2. 15Extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT). Physical and biological mechanisms. Types of shock waves. Therapeutic parameters, indications, contraindications, and safety considerationsSingle, sharp pressure pulses fired into tendons, fascia and bone from outside the body. What a shock wave is and how it differs from ultrasound, how focused and radial devices make their waves, what the pulses do to tissue, how the energy and number of pulses are chosen, which conditions it treats, and where it must never be aimed.
  3. 16Ultraviolet and infrared radiation therapy. Physical characteristics, biological and therapeutic effects. Application methods, dosage, indications, contraindications, and safety considerationsLight used as a treatment. Infrared warms tissue like a fire warms your hands; ultraviolet carries enough energy per photon to change molecules in the skin. This page covers the physics of both, what they do to skin and deeper tissue, the lamps, how the dose is set (by heat sensation for infrared, by the minimal erythema dose for ultraviolet), and when they help or harm.
  4. 17Laser therapy and photobiomodulation. Physical principles, mechanisms of action, therapeutic parameters, dosage, indications, contraindications, and safety considerationsHow a laser makes its special light, why red and near-infrared light can change what cells do without heating them (photobiomodulation), how the dose is worked out from power, time and area, and where the evidence says it helps, along with when it must not be used and how eyes are protected.
  5. 18Aerosol therapy and aeroion therapy. Physical and physiological principles, methods of application, indications, and contraindicationsTwo ways of treating through the air we breathe. Aerosol therapy floats tiny droplets or powder of a drug, saline or mineral water into the airways, and particle size decides where they land. Aeroion therapy fills the air with electrically charged gas molecules. This page covers the physics, the devices, how to inhale, the indications and the contraindications, and how strong the evidence is for each.