Q&A: How to Bring Laser Therapy into Your Pain Practice

posted by Apollo Lasers on Friday, July 17, 2015

Laser therapy is a natural extension of a pain practice since the modality has long been proven to provide pain relief, tissue healing and regeneration, with little or no side effects. 

Dr. Curtis Turchin, director of clinical sciences for Apollo Lasers, recently sat down with Becker's Spine Review to discuss how a pain practice can add laser therapy as a treatment option. During the interview, he discussed: 

• The different types of lasers and what they can be used for
• Other specialists who could benefit from adding laser therapy as a modality
• How to apply laser therapy
• Laser therapy's benefits in post-surgical wound healing
• Laser therapy's ease of use—and the short time it takes for treatment
• Potential costs and profits

---

Q: What value does laser therapy add to a pain practice?

Dr. Curtis Turchin: The primary thing it adds to a physician's practice is a safe, comfortable therapy to reduce pain. Physicians don't need to worry about side effects like they do with injections or pain medications. There are more patients now who are seeking natural and less invasive types of therapies, so providing these state-of-the-art, safe and natural methods gives the physician a broader armamentarium of treatments. It also allows patients to see them as a more modern, holistic-type of practice, which is appealing.

By offering laser therapies, physicians don't have to stop doing what they are already do. It's valuable because a nurse can perform it and free up the physician to focus on other patients where their expertise is more needed, such as with injections or other interventional procedures. It also gives physicians a first line of therapy that is easy and effective — they can go step-by-step from laser to oral medication to injections or other more invasive treatments.