Spinal Decompression & DTS Therapy Treatment

Spinal Decompression (also known as Traction)

Focus Physiotherapy has been providing spinal decompression or (traction) since we opened our doors and while other clinics market themselves as “spinal decompression clinics” don’t be fooled; spinal decompression is best when in conjunction with an overall physical therapy regimen.

Our clinic invests in the technology that is sound and works to get you better.

Spinal Decompression is promoted as safe and effective without the normal risks associated with invasive procedures such as injections, anesthesia or surgery. Spinal decompression works through a series of 15 one minute alternating decompression (using a logarithmic decompression curve) and relaxation cycles with a total treatment time of 20-30 minutes.

During the decompression phase the pressure in the disc is reduced and a vacuum type of effect is produced on the nucleus pulposis. At the same time nutrition is diffused into the disc allowing the annulus fibrosis to heal. Very rarely is the nerve root compressed from the herniated disc and usually the back and leg pain associated with these conditions is a result of irritation to the nerve root sleeve by the inflammatory chemicals that are released as a result of inflammation in the disc.

Will DTS Therapy Treatments Hurt? Is It Safe?

DTS Therapy treatments are one of the most gentle and comfortable therapies available. Most patients report a mild sense of stretch on their neck, back or hips, and often fall asleep during treatment sessions.

Can DTS Therapy Help My Pain?

Though each patient is different and no Physiotherapist can guarantee success, the clinical results of this type of therapy have been effective in over 85% of patients treated.The common problems behind the majority of back conditions are damaged discs and poor spinal muscle control. Our treatment program address both of these core problems.

The DTS system creates a controlled unloading of the vertebra to decrease disc pressure thus increasing blood and nutrient exchange. This exchange of fluids is something the damaged disc desperately needs to help it heal from the inside out. (Muscle strength, control and endurance can all be improved with other facets of DTS Therapy that include specific controlled exercises.)

Will My Pain Go Away For Good?

Although it is always difficult to predict the future, our experience is that most patients do find long-term relief or effective management of their pain when they complete the entire program of treatments. Regular home exercise and periodic visits to our office will help maintain your spinal health and reduce the probability of re-occurrence. As with any comprehensive rehabilitation program your continued home care exercises and discretion in some daily activities is essential to your long-term relief.

Why is DTS Therapy More Successful Than Other Treatment Options?

DTS Therapy is a comprehensive program of the newest traction techniques and targeted “core” stabilization exercise with biofeedback. In addition, we provide other complementary treatments that have proven effectiveness in back care. It is this multidimensional approach that makes the Focus Physiotherapy treatment program so effective.

Additionally, discs have been shown to predominate the area of pain, so treating them as directly as possible is just common sense. Focused-traction to the site, rehabilitation of the supporting structures and overall strengthening of global musculature makes the treatment complete.

In short, DTS Therapy affects the disc as directly and beneficially as possible without invasive, possibly unneeded surgery.

Research points to the beneficial effects of traction because it gently reduces pressure on joint surfaces and discs allowing the body to regain its proper alignment. Traction therapy is a light, gentle stretch for soft tissue muscles and helps joints regain proper function. By stimulating sensory mechanoreceptors (the body’s pressure sensors) the Triton DTS® brings relief from many painful conditions.

The Eyerman study documented by MRI scan of up to 90% reduction of slipped disc (herniations) in 10 of 14 cases.

The Sealy-Bergmeyer study reported that 86% of slipped patients achieved “good” (50 – 89% improvement) to “excellent” (90 – 99% improvement) results after spinal decompression therapy.

The Gionis, Thomas study results showed that 86% of the 219 patients who completed the therapy reported immediate resolution of symptoms, while 84% remained pain – free 90 days post-treatment in 92% of the 219 patients, and remained intact in 89% of these patients 90 days after treatment.

MRI scan images of a patient with a L5/S1 disc herniation before and after DTS Traction Therapy.

DTS Therapy

If you have lower back pain, a pinched nerve, sciatica, neck pain, or a variety of symptoms related to damaged or degenerative discs, this gentle, non-surgical therapy can provide lower back pain relief, sciatica pain relief, and is a state-of-the-art therapy for neck pain relief, bulging or degenerative disc disease, and lumbar pain.

Chattanooga DTS System

A patient’s comfort is our top priority, and we want their visits to be enjoyable and successful. Treatments are short in duration, most completed in under an hour, and administered while you’re fully clothed. Most patients undergoing this treatment report improvements and a reduction in their pain after only a few sessions. DTS Therapy gently stretches the spine, relieving pressure from the discs, joints and muscular tissues, while enhancing the body’s natural healing process.

The gentle distractive forces of the Titron® DTS creates decompression, the unloading due to distraction and proper positioning, to improve blood flow and important nutrient exchange to the injured area.

This helps provide lower back pain relief, sciatica pain relief, neck pain relief, and can aid in alleviating the pain of a pinched nerve.

Your comfort and safety are of primary importance during DTS Spinal Decompression Therapy. Therefore, unlike any other decompression device, you have several positioning options. Only if you’re 100% comfortable will you be able to achieve the ultimate objective of complete rehabilitation of your discs and spine. During DTS Therapy, you’ll experience several cycles of stretch and relaxation, which gently graduates to a peak over a period of several minutes.

Therapy sessions typically last less than 50 minutes and most patients feel pain relief with as few as 6-10 treatments. It is important to remember however, that pain subsiding does not infer that your discs and spine are healed, so it’s critical that patients stick with the treatment protocol prescribed by their practitioners in order to achieve the full value of DTS Therapy.

DTS Spinal Decompression Therapy is a pain-free alternative that has shown a very high rate of success at reducing or even eliminating back and neck pain. If you suffer from chronic, debilitating, low back or neck pain, you owe it to yourself to call our office today to make an appointment to see if you’re a candidate for DTS Spinal Decompression Therapy.

Our office is dedicated to offering the latest, state-of-the-art therapies for lower back pain, sciatica pain relief, pinched nerve, neck pain relief, and bulging or degenerative disc diseases. We believe DTS Spinal Decompression Therapy to be the most advanced, non-surgical and pain-free alternative.

Questions about DTS Spinal Decompression Therapy

Therapy Session

Therapy sessions typically last less than 20 minutes and most patients feel pain relief with as few as 6-10 treatments. It is important to remember however, that pain subsiding does not infer that your discs and spine are healed, so it’s critical that patients stick with the treatment protocol prescribed by their practitioners in order to achieve the full value of DTS Therapy.

DTS Spinal Decompression Therapy is a pain-free alternative that has shown a very high rate of success at reducing or even eliminating back and neck pain. If you suffer from chronic, debilitating, low back or neck pain, you owe it to yourself to call our office today to make an appointment to see if you’re a candidate for DTS Spinal Decompression Therapy.

Our office is dedicated to offering the latest, state-of-the-art therapies for lower back pain, sciatica pain relief, pinched nerve, neck pain relief, and bulging or degenerative disc diseases. We believe DTS Spinal Decompression Therapy to be the most advanced, non-surgical and pain-free alternative.

PHASE I: The Treatment Begins

DTS Decompression Therapy is performed on a specially designed table in either a face up or face down position. Clinical consideration and your comfort are used in deciding which position will be best for you. We may begin in one position but in later sessions it may be necessary to change positions. You will remain fully dressed during the treatment though we recommend wearing loose fitting clothes, and removal of you belt and objects from your pockets.

You will be comfortably positioned on the table and fitted with a wrap-around harness. This restrain is what allows the unloading of the spine and discs by the traction motor. Your position on the table, the harness, and angle of the gentle distraction allows for accurate and focused treatment to the affected disc. Once comfortable on the DTS, the computer controlled traction device is programmed to deliver a gentle stretching force to the spinal vertebra. This force is delivered directly to the harness system. The DTS system applies the gentle force then releases it approximately every minute throughout the session. The total treatment time is usually less than 18 minutes and often just 10 minutes initially. Most patients report simply feeling a subtle and gentle stretching at their lower back or around their hips. Since DTS Therapy is a comfort-based procedure, patients usually report a sense of relief and relaxation during the session. Many patients even fall to sleep.

Imbibing the Discs

The gentle stretching and relaxing of the spine fosters a phenomenon called “imbibition”. In the simplest of terms, this is the way a normal disc gets nutrition. This pumping action promotes nutrition intake into the discs, something often lost in damaged and degenerative disc conditions. In health discs, imbibition occurs naturally with daily motions and body positions and accounts for the increase of disc thickness in the morning and decrease at night. A disc with poor imbibtion, fewer nutrients and hydration, is more likely to become injured and painful. Stretching or tractioning the spine in a controlled, comfortable manner can help re-establish a more normal imbibition. This can re-supply the disc with nutrients and blood contact that help the disc heal from the inside out. Also the dramatic decrease of pressure n the disc (decompression) can foster the drawing in of a bulge and help take pressure off a “pinched” spinal nerve.

Re-establish Structural Support

Although most patients report dramatic reduction of their pain within as few as five treatments, an injured spinal disc needs time to heal. This is why we urge you to be regular with your prescribed treatments and office visits. Research shows to completely heal some discs a regular program of home exercises, prescribed by your doctor will need to be followed. Spinal disc structures can take months to heal. Even though your pain may be gone, you must stay on the treatment plan in order to keep your spine healthy.

As you become more mobile and more able to return to your normal lifestyle, your increased activity is what your spine needs most. Now you will be imbibing the discs naturally, like people their healthy discs. Movement is life, and your spine depends on the muscle activity to support your spine, and create fluid movement to and from the discs.

PHASE II: Stabilization of Structure

Pain Is Under Control: Rehabilitate the Structures Supporting the Disc.Most patients feel significant pain reduction in as few as five DTS Therapy treatments. That however does not mean the healing process is complete, or that your pain won’t return.

During Phase II of your DTS Therapy treatments, our office will prescribe a series of rehabilitative measures in order to more fully heal your discs, and keep the pain from returning. Most low back pain suffers have two compounding problems that have contributed to their disc injury and limited their natural healing abilities.

Decreased Spine Flexibility and Poor Muscle Control

A program of focused rehabilitative exercise, with Biofeedback, may begin during or after your DTS Therapy course of treatment. Our rehabilitation program involves several clinically effective yet simple, pain-free activities including Biofeedback. Biofeedback allows you to monitor and control spinal motion and re-claim proper spinal movement patterns.

Strengthening the muscles that support the spine and regaining endurance in them, is also vital for spinal health.

All the body systems must work in concert for optimum health so nutritional and lifestyle advice may be given as well as an at-home exercise program. We can’t over emphasize the importance of the at-home exercises. What you do at home is integral to the overall success we have. Studies show consistent stabilization and endurance exercises control back pain and reduce injury. At what point you start the exercise program is a function of your pain and overall progress based on our findings.

PHASE III: Support of Muscular System

During Phase III, we’ll structure an in-office and home-based exercise program that will help to bring your spine back to full health. This exercise program may include in-office resistance training, at home Stabilizer exerciser and resistance training and other “core” exercises.

Regular and consistent home based exercise is one of the keys to long-term relief. We have found through experience the simple home-based exercises we prescribe are most effective. Introduction to the low tech movement exercises you can do to speed the healing process are one of the most important parts of the DTS Therapy System.

Contact us today to book your appointment. It’s the first step on your road to recovery.

Mississauga: 416-961-2001
Brampton: 416-961-2001
Etobicoke Kingsway: 416-961-2001
Bolton: 416-961-2001
North York: 416-961-2001
York: 416-961-2001

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The road to recovery starts with one step, and that step starts with contacting us at Focus Physiotherapy.