At our pain management treatment center located in Glen Burnie, MD and Baltimore, MD our pain management specialists are working hard as a team to bring you the best results. Our specialized physicians’ goal is to increase your quality of life. There’s many different types of pain or discomfort in the body that we help minimize and eventually get to the root of the problem. After acute trauma or by repetitive microtrauma, you may begin to notice small painful “knots” develop in your muscles. They can be very sensitive to touch or pressure. If left untreated they can lead to stress on muscle fibers. It then causes the muscle fibers to be stuck in a contracted state. Sometimes you can feel these knots when you rub your muscles. These knots are called trigger points. A trigger point injection can help soothe myofascial pain, especially in your neck, shoulder, arms, legs and lower back.

“Myo” means muscle and “fascial” means fascia. Your fascia is the thin, white connective tissue that’s wrapped around every muscle. To the touch, trigger points feel like small bumps, nodules or knots in your muscle. Trigger points can develop in any muscle.

Trigger points can cause certain types of pain or issues. For example, trigger points affecting your trapezius muscle may cause tension headaches. A trigger point affecting your piriformis muscle (a muscle in your buttocks) can cause piriformis syndrome — when the piriformis muscle presses on your sciatic nerve. It causes pain or numbness in your buttock and down the back of your leg.

A trigger point injection may be right for you if pain or discomfort has not improved with other treatments, including over-the-counter pain medication, heat therapy, massage therapy, myofascial release and physical therapy. Pain management specialists typically use trigger point injections alongside physical therapy and stretching exercises to alleviate the pain.

This strategy can be particularly beneficial when a trigger point injection is initially used to reduce pain in people who are unable to do physical therapy or stretching due to intense pain. The trigger point injection can allow physical therapy to be more effective.

We were not born to live in misery. We are meant to live our life every day to its fullest potential. When we experience ongoing pain and never seek medical help it can begin to debilitate our daily functions and can turn into more problems such as mental health disorders. At Lifestream Health Center we have numerous procedures and treatments available to our pain specialists that can help with any acute or chronic pain management issue. We proudly accept most insurance providers including Medicaid and Medicare. Don’t hesitate, reach out to our trained pain management specialists and schedule an appointment today.