Cold laser therapy: Scam or Sham treatment for Pain? part 2

Where is cold laser therapy done?

The treatment is performed as an outpatient at a clinic, salon, or a physician’s office. You lie down, make yourself comfortable and then the hand held laser is held close to skin and activated. The laser penetrates skin and generates heat in your body. The doctors claim that the heat then heals the tissues.

How many types of lasers are there?

Well, every week there is a new laser, there is a hot laser, fractional laser, cold laser, medium laser, soft laser, wrinkle laser, Fraxel laser, affirm laser, diode laser, CO2 laser and the list goes on. This should tell the consumer that there is no ideal laser that works. Just like weight loss gimmicks, lasers do not fare any better- at least when it comes to pain control or erasing wrinkles.

What can a cold laser treat?

Well, I think the question should be what it can’t treat? The providers of cold laser claim that it can heal and cure almost every type of bone, joint and muscle injury (if this was true, why do we still have more than 50 million individuals with arthritic and joint pain?)

The claims are that Cold laser can be used to treat the following injuries:

- traumatic injury to muscle
- traumatic injury to bone
- back pain
- neck pain
- shoulder pain
- elbow pain
- wrist pain
- chronic fatigue or fibromyalgia
- any joint pain
- any type of arthritis
- carpal tunnel syndrome
- tendinitis
- neuropathic pain
- sports related injuries
- strains and sprains

When does one see results with cold laser treatment?

Majority see no relief of anything, except less money in their pockets. The providers of this therapy claim that pain relief is not instantaneous. It can take several sessions of laser treatment to see pain relief (have you not heard this same line with the cosmetic surgeons and wrinkles!)

How long does each session last?

If you have mild pain, just one zap of the laser is ok and it takes a few minutes. A few seconds for the laser and several more minutes up at the cashier. If you have many joints that need treatment, it can take 20-30 minutes.