What do ultrasound machines do

List of Partners vendors. Therapeutic ultrasound is a treatment modality commonly used in physical therapy. It is used to provide deep heating to soft tissues in the body. These tissues include muscles, tendons, joints, and ligaments. Ultrasound in physical therapy is not to be confused with diagnostic ultrasound, which is an ultrasound that is used to see the inside of the body, such as checking on a fetus during pregnancy.

Therapeutic ultrasound is used primarily for two different effects: the deep heating treatment and non-thermal uses. Ultrasound is often used to provide deep heating to soft tissue structures in the body.

Deep heating tendons, muscles, or ligaments increases circulation to those tissues, which is thought to help the healing process. Increasing tissue temperature with ultrasound is also used to help decrease pain. Deep heating can be used to increase the "stretchiness" of muscles and tendons that may be tight. If you have shoulder pain and have been diagnosed with a frozen shoulder, your physical therapist may use ultrasound to help improve the extensibility of the tissues around your shoulder prior to performing range of motion exercises.

This may help improve the ability of your shoulder to stretch. Ultrasound introduces energy into the body. This energy causes microscopic gas bubbles around your tissues to expand and contract rapidly, a process called cavitation.

It is theorized that the expansion and contraction of these bubbles help speed cellular processes and improves the healing of injured tissue. Two types of cavitation include stable and unstable cavitation. Stable cavitation is desired when your physical therapist is applying ultrasound to your body. Unstable cavitation can be dangerous to your body's tissues, and your physical therapist will ensure that this does not occur during the application of ultrasound.

Inside your physical therapist's ultrasound unit is a small crystal. When an electrical charge is applied to this crystal, it vibrates rapidly, creating piezoelectric waves. These waves are emitted from the ultrasound sound head as ultrasound waves. The ultrasound wave then enters into your injured tissues during application of the modality.

This increases blood flow and cavitation, leading to the theorized benefits of the treatment. Ultrasound is performed with a machine that has an ultrasound transducer sound head. A small amount of gel is applied to the particular body part; then your physical therapist slowly moves the sound head in a small circular direction on your body.

The therapist may change various settings of the ultrasound unit to control the depth of penetration of the ultrasound waves or change the intensity of the ultrasound. Different settings are used in various stages of healing. Alternative methods of ultrasound application are available if the body part is bony and bumpy, or if there's an open wound. Owning a home ultrasound therapy machine is easier now than ever. Convenient hard carrying cases and all-in-one design make ultrasound therapy accessible to anyone who needs it.

Sometimes a clinical ultrasound unit might be too big to haul around the office. Our handheld all-in-one portable ultrasound machines are great for therapists on the go. Additionally, all our top professional ultrasound machines can be converted into a mobile ultrasound device with the addition of a mobile cart.

Mobile Carts for Ultrasound machines come in many different varieties. Our clinical models feature large storage drawers, locking wheels, and an easy solution for keeping everything organized.

Discounts are always available for professionals, schools, students and any other B2B customers. Our top portable ultrasound devices are perfect for:. Taking it a step further, combining ultrasound and TENS with a combination therapy unit doubles the treatment options. For a lower price, you can double treatment options, increasing both therapeutic value and revenue. Ultrasound machines deliver heat to injured areas while e-stim causes the muscles to contract and stimulates the nerves for multiple benefits.

Professional ultrasound devices and combination units for physical therapy have all kind of healing benefits. Ultrasound therapy applies healing sound waves directly to the treated body area.

The soundwaves are a non-invasive therapy method that provides heat and increased blood flow to injured and inflamed tissues. Physical therapists and Sports Medicine practices see a lot of musculoskeletal injuries. Therapeutic ultrasound can benefit injured: muscles, tendons, joints, and ligaments. Whether dealing with a minor injury or recovering from a major surgery, ultrasound therapy is a likely treatment option for many patients. Provide phonophoresis non-invasive way of administering medications below the skin.

Chiropractic medicine has always been known to be open to all kinds of alternative therapy options. No matter the modality, the main goal for chiropractic treatment is to reduce inflammation and increase range of motion. Ultrasound therapy increases blood circulation of the joints allowing the body to recover faster in a natural manner. The healing soundwaves from ultrasound therapy do just that.

Ultrasound therapy is the perfect treatment modality for chiropractic use. Spinal issues are known to manifest into pain and discomfort in all areas of the body. The concentrated heating capabilities of soundwaves can supplement benefits of traditional chiropractic work. By incorporating this powerful healing modality as an effective, non-invasive pain relief option in your practice you add value to your available treatment options not found in other practices.

In fetal ultrasound, three-dimensional 3D ultrasound allows the visualization of some facial features and possibly other parts such as fingers and toes of the fetus.

Four-dimensional 4D ultrasound is 3D ultrasound in motion. While ultrasound is generally considered to be safe with very low risks, the risks may increase with unnecessary prolonged exposure to ultrasound energy, or when untrained users operate the device.

Expectant mothers should also be aware of concerns with purchasing over-the-counter fetal heartbeat monitoring systems also called doptones. These devices should only be used by trained health care providers when medically necessary. Use of these devices by untrained persons could expose the fetus to prolonged and unsafe energy levels, or could provide information that is interpreted incorrectly by the user. Ultrasound imaging does introduce energy into the body, and laboratory studies have shown that diagnostic levels of ultrasound can produce physical effects in tissue, such as pressure oscillations with subsequent mechanical effects and rise in temperature.

Therefore, FDA recommends that health care providers consider ways to minimize exposure while maintaining diagnostic quality when using ultrasound. Individual states regulate the use of diagnostic ultrasound through recommendations and requirements for personnel qualifications, quality assurance and quality control programs and facility accreditation. Ultrasound practices should consider site and staff participation in voluntary accreditation and certification programs that address both safety and effectiveness of the device following the principles of As Low As Reasonably Achievable ALARA , such as those offered by the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine and the American Registry of Diagnostic Medical Sonographers.

Therapeutic ultrasound also uses sound waves above the range of human hearing but does not produce images. Its purpose is to interact with tissues in the body such that they are either modified or destroyed. Among the modifications possible are: moving or pushing tissue, heating tissue, dissolving blood clots, or delivering drugs to specific locations in the body. These destructive, or ablative, functions are made possible by use of very high-intensity beams that can destroy diseased or abnormal tissues such as tumors.

The advantage of using ultrasound therapies is that, in most cases, they are non-invasive. No incisions or cuts need to be made to the skin, leaving no wounds or scars. Ultrasound waves are produced by a transducer, which can both emit ultrasound waves, as well as detect the ultrasound echoes reflected back. In most cases, the active elements in ultrasound transducers are made of special ceramic crystal materials called piezoelectrics.

These materials are able to produce sound waves when an electric field is applied to them, but can also work in reverse, producing an electric field when a sound wave hits them. When used in an ultrasound scanner, the transducer sends out a beam of sound waves into the body. The sound waves are reflected back to the transducer by boundaries between tissues in the path of the beam e. When these echoes hit the transducer, they generate electrical signals that are sent to the ultrasound scanner.

These distances are then used to generate two-dimensional images of tissues and organs. During an ultrasound exam, the technician will apply a gel to the skin.

This keeps air pockets from forming between the transducer and the skin, which can block ultrasound waves from passing into the body.

Click here to watch a short video about how ultrasound works. Diagnostic ultrasound. Diagnostic ultrasound is able to non-invasively image internal organs within the body.

However, it is not good for imaging bones or any tissues that contain air, like the lungs. Under some conditions, ultrasound can image bones such as in a fetus or in small babies or the lungs and lining around the lungs, when they are filled or partially filled with fluid.

One of the most common uses of ultrasound is during pregnancy, to monitor the growth and development of the fetus, but there are many other uses, including imaging the heart, blood vessels, eyes, thyroid, brain, breast, abdominal organs, skin, and muscles.