Manual Therapy
Manual therapy incorporates specialized, hands-on techniques targeting areas of your body that are limited in motion to improve your movement and reduce pain. Manual therapy is especially beneficial if you are experiencing spine problems, joint injuries, or other health conditions.
Teton Therapy’s physical and occupational therapists have specialized training to provide gentle manual techniques to address muscle and joint injuries. This includes massage (soft tissue mobilization), joint mobilization, and neuromuscular techniques to help you feel better.
Diagnostic Testing
Teton Therapy became the first therapy clinic in Wyoming to train therapists in conducting Diagnostic Ultrasounds, Nerve Conduction Studies, and Electromyograms. Typically, this testing is completed in Medical Doctor offices. However, it is now approved to be performed by properly trained physical therapists by Medicaid, Medicare, and private insurances. Our Doctors of Physical Therapy need to be certain of the underlying problems our patients are facing. These tests allow the therapist to customize an effective treatment plan to obtain better results in less time while saving money. Testing is offered to our Riverton, Lander, and Cheyenne patients.
Think of a diagnostic ultrasound as a picture or video inside your body; it allows the therapist and patient to see joints, muscles, tendons, and bones. Unlike an MRI or X-ray, we can move the body part and record it or take a still photo. An ultrasound also allows us to quickly look at both sides of the body to compare differences. For instance, if you have pain in your left knee, we can use an ultrasound to see if it’s arthritis, swelling, torn ligaments, or an inflamed tendon. We can then compare it to your other knee to determine whether it’s abnormal or not. As a therapist, the goal is to get a patient back to “normal” anatomy. A diagnostic ultrasound can assess the normality of shoulders, elbows, hands, wrists, hips, knees, ankle, and feet.
A nerve is a structure that carries electrical impulses to and from your brain and body. A Nerve Conduction Study (NCS) tests the speed of the nerve signal to see if it is slow. Slow speed indicates a compressed or damaged nerve. For example, if a patient has pain, numbness or tingling in their hand, it could be from a nerve compressed in the neck or in the hand. The results of this test will tell us where the damage is, which allows us to treat the proper body part.
An Electromyogram (EMG) tests how mild or severe the nerve damage is by testing the muscle. “Myo” means muscle and since the nerves provide power to the muscles, we can determine how damaged a nerve might be. These two tests (NCS and EMG) are always completed together and can help diagnose conditions such as nerve entrapment (e.g. carpal tunnel), neuropathy (damage to multiple nerves), radiculopathy (nerves pinched in the neck and back), and even neurological disease processes such as Guillain-Barre, Lou Gehrig’s disease, and Multiple Sclerosis.
Therapeutic Exercise
Part of the recovery process means strengthening the weakened muscles of your injured or painful areas. This provides better support to the joints and prevents pain from reoccurring.
Your Teton Therapy physical or occupational therapist will show you the correct way to do easy exercises to improve your range of motion, strength, coordination, and stamina. In addition, we also teach you how to perform these exercises at home so you can maintain and progress with your results.