What is TECAR Therapy?
TECAR stands for the spanish acronym Tranferencia Electica
CApacitiva Resistiva, meaning Capacitive
Resistive Electric Transference. It is a diathermy (i.e. deep
tissue thermotherapy) therapeutic modality,
therefore it uses increases in local body tissue temperature, in
combination with subthermal application
to promote the body's healing response.
TECAR technology is non-ablative, non-invasive, using currents of
high frequency, usually in the range
between 300 KHz and 1 Mhz. It can work in two modes of energy
transfer:
Capacitive mode: affects tissues with higher electrolytic content
(soft tissues and muscles)
Resistive mode: affects tissues with higher resistance (joint,
bone, tendon)
Common uses in physiotherapy
TECAR's main use in physiotherapy relates to the rehabilitation of
musculoskeletal and pain disorders,
and sport rehabilitation. Some commonly treated conditions are:
Acute or chronic injuries / inflammation
Muscle spasms
Joint pain
Synovitis
Tendinopathy
Post-surgical
Osteoarthritis
Low back pain
There are also other areas that TECAR uses have been expanded such
as pelvic health, physio-aesthetics,
and veterinary rehabilitation.
How Does TECAR Therapy work?
Have you ever hit your knee really hard and then rubbed it to make
the pain go away? The pain doesn’t
actually go away. What happens is the surrounding nerves are
stimulated by the friction and the pain signal
from your knee gets confused. The pain remains the same, but the
brain doesn’t register it as much. When
you go through TECAR Therapy, an electrode head will be placed on
the site of your pain, and you will feel
a zapping. This zapping creates the same effect and it works for
much more intense pain. This nerve stimulation
can stop your nerves compounding the effect of the initial pain and
can ease the inflammation, therefore reducing pain.
In addition, the heat speeds up your metabolism. This causes your
blood to flow faster and to become more
oxygenated. The result is that more oxygen, and other healing
properties of your body’s natural systems,
are rushed to the site. The waste is also removed more quickly. The
overall result is that your pain is
reduced significantly, and the injury is healed more quickly.
