Class IV Laser Therapy is a revolutionary advancement in non-surgical pain relief and tissue repair. This treatment is safe, comfortable and highly effective in helping your body to heal. The Avicenna 12 Watt High Power Laser is the most powerful, deepest penetrating, therapeutic laser currently approved by the FDA.
High Power Laser Therapy represents a huge technological breakthrough over less effective “Cold Lasers”. Class IV High Power Laser Therapy is capable of delivering much greater amounts of healing energy than the previous generation of Laser Therapy devices. More power means greater effectiveness, deeper penetration and shorter treatment times.
High Power Laser Therapy can effectively treat ligaments, joints, nerves, muscles, tendons, and scar tissue as deep as 20 cm from the skin surface. The previous generation of Laser Therapy devices could only treat tissues that were less than half a centimeter deep!
L-A-S-E-R is an acronym that stands for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission or Radiation. Normal light consists of many wavelengths that scatter in different directions. A laser amplifies and focuses specific light frequencies into collimated beams of a single wavelength.
Although lasers can be found almost everywhere, from laser pointers in a classroom, to surgical lasers in operating rooms; therapeutic lasers are unique to the field of medicine. Therapeutic lasers are able to transmit energy below the skin level to the underlying tissue without harming the tissue it passes through. The light energy reacts in the body by creating physiological changes within the cells– a process called photobiomodulation. These benefits include pain reduction, decreased inflammation, increased blood circulation and improved healing time.
Albert Einstein is often credited for the development of Laser Theory. He used the term “stimulated emission” in his theory Zur Quantum Theories der Strahlung which was published in 1916. The healing effects of the laser were not discovered until over 50 years later. A few years after the first working laser was invented in 1967, Endre Mester at the Semmelweis University in Budapest, Hungary, performed tests on mice to determine whether or not laser exposure caused cancer. In his experiments he shaved the hair off the backs of mice and divided the subjects into two groups. He exposed one group to laser treatment using a low-power laser while the control group received no laser therapy. The mice who received laser therapy experienced much faster hair regrowth than the control group. Thus, photo-biostimulation (activation of the cell by light) was discovered.
Low power lasers became accessible for the treatment of pain in the late 1970’s and have been widely utilized around the globe by health practioners in a variety of settings. These early lasers were only slightly more powerful than modern keychain-sized laser pointers (about 5 milliWatts (mW)) that can be purchased for a few dollars at any office supply store. The extremely low power limited the use of these lasers to superficial wound treatment, as they were unable to penetrate the skin.
More Powerful Lasers
It wasn’t until the FDA approved the Class IIIB lasers for therapeutic use that the miraculous benefits of Laser Therapy really became recognized. Class IIIB lasers (commonly called “Cold Lasers” or Low-Level Laser Therapy [LLLT]) were limited to 500mW (about 100 times more powerful than a modern-day laser pointer) of power which allowed them to treat conditions just below the skin, as they were able to penetrate about half a centimeter into the tissue. This opened up the field of Laser Therapy to other tissues including ligaments, tendons and muscles that were located very close to the skin.
In 2006 the FDA created the 4th classification of therapeutic lasers – known as Class IV Lasers. This was the birth of High Power Laser Therapy (HPLT). The FDA classified Class IV lasers as operating between 500mW (Class IIIB) and 7,500 mW. This is about 15 times more powerful than the previous generation “Cold Lasers”. This means that the latest generation of laser can penetrate much deeper than the older laser units and deliver results in a fraction of the time.
In July of 2009, the FDA approved the use of a 12,000 mW, high power laser, which is able to penetrate even more deeply into the tissue and deliver healing light energy in even less time. This allows the clinician to treat almost any tissue in the body, from superficial cuts and burns to deep-seated disc pathologies to arthritic changes deep within a joint.
The only Laser Therapy unit currently available with this much therapeutic power is the Avicenna 12W High Power Laser Therapy Unit. The staff at Pro Motion Physiotherapy is proud to be able to offer its healing benefits to their clients!
Many research trials and clinical studies have been performed to determine the positive effects of Laser Therapy for a wide range of clinical conditions. The following list is a compilation of the most widely studied biological effects of Laser Therapy.
Pain Relief:
Laser Therapy relieves pain through several different biological mechanisms:
Inflammation Reduction:
Laser Therapy causes the smaller arteries and lymph vessels of the body to increase in size, a mechanism called vasodilation. It is this process that allows inflammation, swelling and edema to be cleared away from injury sites more effectively as well as assisting in the more rapid resolution of bruising. Vasodilation also promotes lymph vessels to drain which aids in the healing process.
Faster Wound Healing:
Your skin and other body tissues are made up primarily of collagen. Fibroblasts are the building blocks needed to create collagen. Laser Therapy stimulates the production of fibroblasts and therefore allows collagen to be made. Laser Therapy, is therefore, an effective treatment for open wounds and burns.
Improved Nerve Function:
Laser light speeds up the process of nerve cell regeneration. This allows for a shorter recovery time after a nerve injury. Laser Therapy also increases the strength of action potentials, or signals sent along nerve fibers. The increased signal strength improves overall nerve and muscle function. It is for these reasons that Laser Therapy is so effective at reducing the symptoms related to nerve injury – namely sharp pain, numbness, tingling and burning.
Accelerated Tissue Repair and Cell Growth:
The light emitted by therapeutic lasers penetrates into tissues to stimulate the energy production in cells. The increase in cellular energy enables the cells to absorb nutrients and expel waste products more rapidly. This dramatically accelerates the repair of injured tissues and leads to faster tendon, ligament and muscle healing.
Increased Metabolic Activity:
Laser Therapy also has a significant impact on individual blood cells that pass through the laser beam during treatment. The laser light enables the red blood cells (RBCs) to be able to carry more oxygen and nutrients to the rest of the body. This allows for increased metabolic activity and production of specific enzymes. Both of these effects can be felt throughout the entire body and are not limited to the area exposed to the laser.
Improved Blood Flow:
Laser Therapy significantly increases the formation of tiny blood vessels, called capillaries, within damaged tissues. More capillaries allow more blood flow to the area of injury. This results in accelerated healing as wounds are closed more rapidly and scar tissue formation is reduced.
Reduced Formation of Scar Tissue:
After tissue damage has occurred through cuts, burns or surgery; scar tissue often forms around the injury site. Laser Therapy reduces the formation of scar tissue by speeding up the healing process. It does this by improving blood flow to the injured area and thereby allowing for the more effective removal of waste products. Faster healing always leads to less scar tissue formation.
Enhanced Immune Function:
ATP (adenosine tri-phosphate) is the single most important form of energy that powers ALL chemical reactions within ALL cells of the body. When laser light is absorbed by chromophores, which are embedded within most cells of the body, this activates the production of ATP. Higher energy production leads to faster and more efficient cell function. This is especially true of immune-specific cells that are exposed to Laser Therapy. This improved efficiency aids the immune system in fighting off undesirable microbes and pathogens.
Acupuncture Point Stimulation:
Laser Therapy is also an effective alternative to traditional acupuncture treatment. Traditional acupuncture delivers therapeutic effects through the stimulation of acupuncture points throughout the body. This is achieved by piercing the acupuncture points with needles and then twisting the needles by hand, tamping them or connecting them to electrical stimulation devices. Laser Therapy may be used to stimulate the same acupuncture points without the need for invasive needling or similar mechanical stimulation.
The single most important factor that determines the effectiveness of Laser Therapy is the power output (measured in milliwatts (mW)) of the Laser Therapy Unit. It is important for the following reasons:
Although the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recognizes four different classifications of lasers (Class I – Class IV), only Low Level Class IIIb and High Level Class IV lasers have been demonstrated to provide health benefits to patients.
Low Level Laser Therapy (Class IIIb):
Class IIIb Lasers have been in use treating a variety of healthcare conditions for many years and are defined as having a total power output of 25-500 mW. These lasers are commonly referred to as “Cold Laser” or “Low Level Laser Therapy (LLLT)”. Due to their extremely low power output, these “Cold Lasers” are only capable of penetrating up to 0.5 cm into the body and treatment times for simple conditions can be as much as 1-2 hours. These Cold Lasers are limited to conditions related to the skin or just below the skin, such as superficial ligaments and nerves in hands, feet, elbows and knees. Low Level Laser Therapy (LLLT) has virtually no impact on the treatment of joint, muscle, nerve, bone or spinal disc conditions since most of these body structures are located deep beneath the skin. Therefore, Cold Laser Therapy is often considered obsolete by Laser Therapy standards.
Avicenna High Power Laser Therapy (Class IV):