There’s no such thing as a good time to be dealing with foot or ankle pain. Healthy feet and ankles are just as important now as they have ever been.
In fact, for some of us, now might be the worst time to be limited by foot and ankle pain. If you’re already struggling to deal with spending much of your free time at home, the inability to go outside and enjoy physical activities—even at a safe distance—can feel like a punch to the gut.
At the Foot Specialists of Long Island, it’s our mission to help you recover from painful episodes as quickly and safely as possible, so you can be as active as you want to be. One important way we can help our patients achieve this, even during the pandemic, is with laser therapy.
What Is Laser Therapy for Pain?
You can get the full details from our laser therapy service page, but here’s a briefer version:
Laser therapy is an exciting, advanced technology that, when added to a comprehensive treatment plan, can significantly accelerate your body’s natural healing processes to greatly reduce your recovery time.
Better yet, laser therapy requires:
- No injections or incisions
- No medications or chemicals (including anesthesia)
- No side effects
- No down time
It might sound too good to be true, but it really isn’t! During the treatment, the laser supplies energy (in the form of light) deep into the cells of a painful part of your body. The cells can then use that energy to accelerate (or even “kick start”) essential pain-relieving, anti-inflammatory, and tissue repair processes.
Because there’s such a wide variety of benefits—vascular activity, metabolic activity, immune function, etc.—laser therapy is broadly effective for almost any cause of either chronic or acute soft tissue injury, including heel pain, tendinitis, muscle spasms, joint pain, and more!
Treatment sessions are brief and painless. If you live close enough to our office, you could be in and out within a lunch break, easily. The effects of treatment are cumulative, meaning you feel better and better (and your injury heals more and more) after each session. Typically, around 6 sessions are sufficient for optimal results for most painful foot problems.
Is Now Really the Right Time for Laser Therapy?
During the COVID-19 outbreak, our office has remained open to serving patients with all kinds of foot and ankle needs. Pain that limits your lifestyle should always be considered an urgent concern. Ignoring the problem will typically only make the situation worse, and an urgent care center is probably the last place you want to be right now.
Now, if we think your current painful symptoms can be managed successfully without making an in-person appointment at our office, we can certainly go that route. A telemedicine appointment where we discuss your symptoms and recommend some home treatment options can be an excellent choice for an initial consult.
That said, if we do think you require in-person treatment for your pain, we want you to know that laser therapy is an excellent and very safe option!
- Because the treatment is totally non-invasive and has no known side effects, you don’t have to worry that an incision, adverse reaction, or unexpected complication will increase your risk of needing follow-up care.
- Treatments can be provided by a single doctor or technician, using a handheld applicator, without any other direct physical contact. It’s one of the most “social distance friendly” modes of treatment we provide! And of course, we’ll be wearing masks and gloves.
- The laser device and applicator are very easy to disinfect and sterilize, and of course we are doing so before and after every treatment session, every time we use it.
- Because treatments are so quick and there’s no need for any kind of downtime or recovery afterward, you can be in an out of the office in lightning speed.
And of course, also understand that we are going above and beyond for all patients who walk through our doors. We’re carefully following the most up-to-date CDC guidelines for health and safety. We’re strictly limiting the number of people who can be in the office, and asking people to wait in their cars until their room is completely disinfected and ready. We’re even doing curbside pickup for those who just need an over-the-counter item we have in stock.
Truly, we are putting the health and safety of you and your loved ones at the very top of our list of priorities—just as we always have.
The Attention and Care You Deserve Is Just a Call Away
We understand that many people may be a little nervous about calling their foot doctor in the middle of a pandemic. Don’t be!
At the very least, we’re here to provide information and guidance. Maybe we can answer your question over the phone, or via a telemedicine appointment—and you won’t have to come in at all.
Or, maybe we will recommend an in-person appointment.
But either way, you’ll be armed with the knowledge you need to make an informed choice about your health care, instead of staying in the dark!
If you’re experiencing any foot or ankle pain, give the Foot Specialists of Long Island a call today at (516) 804-9038.
