Extracorporeal Shock Wave Therapy or ESWT is an 20-minute non-surgical procedure used to cure chronic plantar fasciitis, Achilles tendonitis, tennis elbow, shoulder tendonitis, and other chronic tendinopathies.

ESWT benefits patients because their condition can be treated extracorporeally, meaning outside of the body.Since ESWT is non-invasive, there is no lengthy recovery period, virtually no time off from work or risk of causing further damage.

ESWT is one of the few technologies that performs best on people with chronic conditions that did not respond to conservative traditional therapy. ESWT accelerates the body’s own healing process in a number of ways:

• Through a process called cavitation, ESWT stimulates fibroblast and tenocyte production. Fibroblast or tenocyte cells make up your body’s connective tissues, such as tendons and the fascia.
• ESWT diminishes pain by over-stimulating the nerves that send pain sensations to the brain.
• The procedure can break down pathological calcification deposits (also known as a spur). Depending upon your condition this may or may not be the goal, but an interesting by-product. In all cases, ESWT is targeted at the condition that caused the spur, not the spur itself.