What is Trigger Point Pain Treatment?

Trigger point pain is a condition that can affect anybody. Pressure on trigger points results in pain. The pressure occurs mainly when muscles contract and are involved in a repetitive motion. Trigger point pain could result from doing something you love, working, or stressing out. Do you feel a thick knot or pain in your neck, shoulders, or upper back, and does the pain intensify when you press on the knot? If so, then you have likely found a trigger point. Luckily, several treatment options are available, including at-home remedies, medication, and therapy, as this blog discusses.

Understanding What Trigger Points Are Before Seeking Treatment

Trigger points are like little knots or marbles just underneath your skin. Most people do not feel discomfort or pain when they press on the trigger points. At times, trigger points are highly sensitive, and a good percentage of people will feel pain in places where the trigger points are located. If you have ever experienced a Charley horse in your muscle, you understand how it feels; the whole muscle spasms and the single thing that may help is gently stretching and elongating it. Now, trigger points are like tiny Charley horses in the muscle. These annoyingly troublesome points do not cause the spasming of the whole muscle, only a small part of it. However, you might start experiencing restricted muscle mobility and intense pain if you have several trigger points.

A trigger point can occur in any area of your body. Any place in the body with muscle tissue may have a minor area of tension, which may be deemed a trigger point. Common body areas with trigger points include:

Along the iliotibial band
The calf muscles
The hamstrings
The lower back’s quadratus lumborum muscles
The upper trapezius muscle on both sides of the neck above the shoulders

What Shows You Have Trigger Point Pain?

Symptoms or signs that you have trigger point pain may include:

Pain that worsens when the impacted muscle is strained or stretched
Deep, aching muscle pain
Difficulty sleeping because of the pain
A tender knot in a muscle that produces intense referred or localized pain when pressed
Muscle pain that worsens or becomes persistent with time.
Inflexible, stiff, weak muscles, or muscles with a reduced range of motion.
Mood disturbances

Trigger Points and Myofascial Syndrome

Trigger points can be anywhere in the body. If they are excessive, you might experience myofascial syndrome and chronic pain. For instance, imagine you have one tiny cut on your finger. It might hurt a little, particularly if you try moving the finger or an object bumps the small cut. However, the cut is not severe; it is simply temporary. Now, suppose the fingers on your hand have minor cuts. The cuts are so many that they badly hurt. And because the cuts are many, every motion or resting position causes pain. That is what is known as myofascial pain syndrome. Essentially, myofascial pain syndrome occurs when you have many minor fascial and muscle trigger points in that your body muscles are persistently in pain.

It can be hard to treat myofascial pain syndrome. The pain is usually extensive, and knowing where to start treatment can be challenging.

At-Home Trigger Point Pain Treatments

To alleviate pain while in the comfort of your home, you can try various muscle relaxation exercises and treatment options:

Do exercises that involve the shoulder and neck muscles. Yoga, swimming, and jumping jacks are excellent ways to relieve muscle tension
Reducing stress— trigger points-related pain could be a direct response to physical or mental stressors
Try to avoid activities that result in pain intensification. If sitting for a more extended period at work intensifies the pain, you can try taking breaks, stretching, walking around, or using an ergonomic chair.
Use over-the-counter anti-inflammatory drugs. They assist in relieving muscle pain.
Loosen the knots by massaging the trigger point, which encourages the relaxation of the muscle
Applying ice. This reduces inflammation, particularly if the pain intensifies after any activity. Should the pain last and the muscles become sour, apply heat to loosen the tight muscles.

When You Should See a Doctor

In most cases, neck pain disappears within a few weeks or days. If your trigger point pain does not go away or fails to respond to at-home treatments, it is time to call your physician for medical assessment and treatment. Almost everybody develops muscle pain from time to time. But if the pain persists after trying massage, rest, or similar at-home care measures, visiting a physician is the ideal next step. Treatments for trigger point pain include some kind of medication, physical therapy, and needle injections. A combination of these options is often effective in finding the best relief.

If it is not treated, the problems caused by trigger point pain may become cumulative. Therefore, treating the pain sooner rather than later is always advisable.

You Need to be Prepared for Your Doctor's Appointment

Since symptoms and signs of trigger point pain match those of several different disorders, you might visit several physicians before you can be diagnosed. You are likely to begin by visiting your primary care physician, who might refer you to a rheumatologist (a doctor specializing in treating and diagnosing joint and muscle conditions). You might receive more information from your doctor's appointment if you do the following in advance:

Consider the questions you will ask your physician and note them down—carry along a pen and a piece of paper to write down details as your physician answers your questions and addresses your concerns. For trigger point pain, some essential questions you can ask your physician include:

What is the likely cause of my symptoms?
Is my trigger point pain temporary or long-lasting?
Will I have to undergo treatment?
What treatment options are available?
Do you have brochures or other printed materials I can take home?

List all your vital medical information, including all health conditions for which you are being treated, plus any supplements, vitamins, or medications you are taking.

Write down the symptoms you are experiencing, including those that might appear unrelated to why you set up the appointment.

Know pre-appointment limitations— when you make your doctor appointment, ensure to ask whether there is anything you must do beforehand.

What You Can Anticipate from Your Physician

Your health care provider or doctor will likely ask you several questions. Preparing to answer the questions may spare you time to review any points you need more time to analyze. Among the questions your physician may ask are:

What symptoms and signs are you having?
For what duration have you had the symptoms or signs?
What area do you experience the most intensified pain in?
Are your symptoms persist, or do they appear and disappear?
Does anything make your symptoms worse?
Does anything make the symptoms better?
Are your signs worse in the morning or at any specific time?
Have you suffered any injuries lately?
Do you do repetitive tasks for hobbies or on the job?
Does the pain you experience make you restrict your activities?

The Doctor Will Have to Diagnose You First

During the physical examination, your physician may apply pressure gently using their fingers to the painful region, feeling for tense areas. A specific way of pressing the trigger points may produce a specific response. For example, you might experience muscle cramps.

Trigger point pain has several potential causes. Your physician may suggest other procedures and tests so they can rule out some causes.

Treatment With Medication

Physicians may prescribe various medications to assist in relieving trigger point pain. These medications may include:

Antidepressants— Your physician may recommend antidepressants to assist in relieving pain when anxiety and stress are the primary causes of trigger point pain. Antidepressants may also help improve sleep inhibited by pain
Pain relievers—drugs like Aleve, Motrin, Tylenol, or Advil, may assist in reducing pain associated with trigger points.
Sedatives— Klonopin (Clonazepam) assists in treating the poor sleep and anxiety that sometimes occur due to trigger point pain. You must use this drug carefully since it may be habit-forming and cause sleepiness.
Anticonvulsants— Neurontin (gabapentin) and Lyrica (pregabalin) may reduce muscle spasms and relieve pain.
Botox injections— Botulinum type A is an effective neurotoxin that prevents muscle contractions and might have a pain-relieving effect.
Muscle relaxants like tizanidine and benzodiazepines can lower muscle spasms.

Treatment With Needle Injections

Physicians may recommend injections to alleviate trigger point pain. A steroid or numbing agent will be injected into the trigger point. Often, the act of injecting the needle assists in easing muscle tension.

Treatment With Dry Needling

Dry needling is an alternative method of trigger point pain treatment. It is among the quickest ways of inactivating trigger points, and it entails inserting a needle around the trigger point to assist in dissolving the tension and knots in the muscle. The doctor moves the needle around and pokes it in and out. This can be painful, but it is among the most effective ways of inactivating trigger points and reducing the pain. A few health care providers utilize acupuncture treatment to relieve trigger point pain because acupuncture needles are smaller and less painful when compared to hypodermic needles. Note that there are several critical differences between acupuncture and dry needling.

Treating Trigger Point Pain With Physical Therapy: What Science Says

Research shows that nobody knows the precise tissue that causes you to experience trigger points. Also, it is unknown why certain people experience pain whenever they touch the muscle knots while others do not.

The current science cannot explain why some trigger points are badly hurt while others are merely muscle knots. In theory, trigger points become so tight that they inhibit blood flow to the muscle tissue, which creates a metabolic problem in the muscles. That is, tightness and pain are experienced, requiring nutrients and oxygen to assist in healing. However, the nutrients cannot reach the muscles because of decreased circulation due to tightness. From here, the pain—reduced circulation—pain pattern or cycle starts, and it is hard to interrupt this cycle.

Passive and Active Trigger Points

We have two trigger point types that physiotherapists treat—passive and active trigger points. Active points refer to pain in other body parts. If a person presses on active trigger points in your shoulder, you might experience pain in the leg accompanied by symptoms in your arm or chest.

A passive trigger point merely hurts at its precise location. For instance, if you are experiencing a painful trigger point in your arm and a person presses on it, you will feel the pain exactly where the person is applying pressure to the knot.

Irrespective of the trigger point type you developed or the fact that you are incapable of fully understanding what is transpiring when you develop trigger points, you might benefit from physiotherapy to assist in managing your problem.

Physiotherapists can develop a treatment plan to relieve pain and teach exercises to help prevent further symptoms and pain. This could include:

Posture training— enhancing your posture assists you in relieving trigger point pain, especially in your neck. Strengthening the muscles around your trigger points through exercise will assist you in avoiding overworking any muscle.
Heat— heat application via a hot shower or hot pack could help reduce pain and alleviate muscle tension.
Stretching— gentle stretching exercises may alleviate the pain in the affected area. If you feel pain when you stretch, your physiotherapist may use a numbing spray or resort to a more gentle stretching approach.
Massage— the therapist can massage the trigger points to break up the knots and relieve muscle tension. They may apply pressure to the muscles to relieve pain. The physiotherapist might apply pressure to particular regions of your muscles or use long hand strokes along your muscles to relieve tension. Massage therapy works by warming up muscles and increasing blood flow.
Ultrasound— this therapy utilizes sound waves to increase warmth and blood circulation, which might promote healing in muscles affected by trigger point pain. The ultrasound machines convey sound waves to tissues via a sound-conducting gel that the physical therapist applies to the skin. The pain-relieving effect could be minimal. However, this therapy may increase mobility and reduce stiffness if conducted before stretching. Ultrasound treatment has been successful in relieving pain resulting from rheumatoid arthritis. Therefore, it is worth discussing with your physician.

Should you seek help from a physiotherapist to treat trigger point pain? You should not go expecting to eliminate the trigger points. Instead, focus on learning strategies to assist in managing trigger point pain. Muscle knot physiotherapy can assist you in managing pain and establishing the fundamental body mechanics that might be causing the muscle knots to be painful.

Trigger point physiotherapy might be beneficial for your trigger point pain. It is conducted by having the physical therapist press and hold over the muscle knots. This will temporarily cut off blood flow to the tissues, increasing the levels of a chemical known as nitric oxide in the tissues. This chemical signals the body to open microcapillaries, allowing increased blood circulation and interrupting the pain-spasm-pain cycle.

At Home Therapy for Trigger Point Pain

The best thing you could do for trigger point pain is to learn how to manage the condition yourself. This could include doing self-massage techniques, including:

Pressing into the trigger points by rolling over a tennis ball
Pressing into the trigger points with a backnobber
Smoothing out fascial tissues by rolling over your muscles with foam

Research shows that no ideal treatment for trigger point pain exists. However, there is one particular thing—involvement in exercise and active treatment programs for correcting body posture are better than passive trigger point treatment options. Let your physiotherapist fully evaluate your condition since this will help you learn about various self-care techniques to manage the trigger points.

Support and Coping

Suffering from a chronic pain condition like trigger point pain can be a frustrating experience. Treatment might be successful only to a certain extent. Talking to a counselor regarding the challenges you are facing may help. In-person or online support groups can also help, as they will connect you with individuals who know and understand what you are going through.

Find Health Clinic and MRI Services Near Me

If you have painful trigger points and muscle knots, first, do not panic. A trigger point is benign and poses no substantial risk to your overall health. They merely cause pain that could restrict your mobility. To control your painful trigger points, you need to seek medical services to ensure the pain is not a result of an underlying cause.

Our professional healthcare providers at Hollywood Healthcare & Diagnostic Imaging will thoroughly evaluate your case and advise on the best course of action. If it is physiotherapy, we will advise on the therapy techniques that best suit your needs. And if it is medication or at-home treatment, we will advise on the suitable options. Call us at 323-486-7502 if you seek trigger point treatment or MRI services in Los Angeles, and we will be pleased to help you.