How Physiotherapy Treatment Relieves Tailbone Injury Pain

Physiotherapy uses various methods like exercise, massage, and heat therapy to treat an injury, deformity, and disease. It is preferable to drugs and surgery since it is non-invasive. It restores and maintains your well-being, allowing you to return to your daily activities. 

What Is the Tailbone?

One of the injuries physiotherapy treatment deals with is tailbone injury. The tailbone or coccyx consists of three to five vertebrae at the bottom of the spine. Sometimes, it can sustain harm due to prolonged sitting, cycling, or falling in a sitting position. When these injuries happen, it causes pain in this area. It makes it difficult to defecate and urinate.

In women, it also makes the menstruation process very uncomfortable. Physiotherapy comes in to relieve pain and get you back on your feet. But sometimes, you may need treatment using surgery or drugs before engaging in physiotherapy.

How Does Physiotherapy Help?

The main goal of physiotherapy is to improve your posture and strengthen your frame. It ensures that whether sitting or standing, you take the weight off the coccyx into your thighs and ischial tuberosities. Several treatment modalities include:

Massage Therapy

It involves using massage therapy to reduce or alleviate the tension in the pelvic floor muscles. These muscles attach the coccyx to the pelvis. Debilitating strain in this area puts pressure on the sacrococcygeal joint and the ligaments. It limits your mobility as it pulls on the coccyx. Massage therapy eases this tension and allows you to return to your daily activities.

Heat or Heating Pad 

You may need a heating pad or heat therapy all through the treatment. Apply it to the bottom of your spine to relieve muscle tension that exacerbates pain in the tailbone. You can create a heating pad using a hot water bottle, getting a hot bath, or using a chemical heat pack. There is also the option of getting a long-lasting heat adhesive strip.

Heat therapy also involves using ice or a cold pack. You can apply this to the bottom of your spine several times. It reduces inflammation and relieves pain.

Manual Manipulations

It involves adjusting the sacrococcygeal joint lying between the sacrum and the coccyx. The adjustment helps relieve the pain due to limited mobility in the coccyx. Some patients prefer this part because they find it brings more relief.

Stretches

Sitting in awkward positions, hypermobility, and falling backward injures the coccyx. It also causes harm to the muscles and tissue around it. Stretching exercises help relieve the tension in these muscles and tissue so that you can get back to your work and activities. It also strengthens your structure to prevent similar injuries in the future.

TENS Unit

It is a therapy that applies electric stimulation. Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation units interfere with the transmission of pain signals from the coccyx to the brain. There are various kinds of TENS units. Some use low-frequency stimulation, while others use high-frequency stimulation. You can wear the low-frequency stimulation units for longer than the high-frequency stimulation units.

For more information on physiotherapy treatment, visit Dr. Dan Kirschner Chiropractic at our Arcadia or Sarasota, Florida office. Call (863) 494-7110 or (941) 214-6150 to schedule an appointment today.