Banks Veterinary Service

What is Laser Therapy? How Does it Work?

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LASER stands for: “Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.”

When the body is healing from injury or inflammation, natural processes occur that increase blood flow to the area, delivering essential chemicals or signals to encourage cells to grow, repair, and divide. Cold laser therapy aims to speed this process up by improving the body’s natural healing mechanisms. 

Laser therapy helps promote the healing of tissue and relieve pain through a process called photobiomodulation. This means that the light emitted by the laser penetrates the cells in the treated area and is converted into useful energy. This energy is the fuel needed to improve the function of the injured cells and accelerate their regeneration. This means less inflammation, less pain, and faster healing for your pet.

 

Benefits of Laser Therapy

The benefits of Laser Therapy are numerous. It helps to reduce inflammation, decrease pain, increase mobility, and stimulate faster healing in injured cells.  Our vets use cold laser therapy to supplement other treatment options to give our pet patients an improved outcome.

Fast: Laser therapy only takes a few minutes. Although patients may need to attend several sessions before their treatment is complete, they should be able to fit laser therapy easily into their schedules. They also won’t need to set aside time to recover, and they can return to work immediately after each appointment. Also, studies have shown long-lasting results.

Painless: Laser therapy is a painless, non-invasive procedure.  It’s easy to apply and can be performed in your office instead of an external facility.

Non-pharmacological: Physicians can use laser therapy to help patients manage pain without prescribing addictive opioids. Since opioids have a high risk of misuse, laser therapy makes a safer alternative to pain relief.

Safe: Unlike surgery or pain medications, laser therapy does not have any side effects. With laser therapy, patients don’t have to worry about any complications associated with surgery or endure long recovery times.

Effective: Many studies show the positive effects of laser therapy, and it’s cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat various conditions.

The main clinical benefits of laser use in pets include decreased inflammation, decreased pain, and improved wound healing.


Is Laser Therapy Safe?

We use a Cutting Edge class IV Laser. Laser therapy has no known adverse side effects, and your dog won't need any time to recover. While some dogs need multiple sessions before results can be seen, many dogs show signs of reduced pain and discomfort and increased mobility and activity after only one or two treatments.


Using Laser Therapy with other Treatments.

Therapeutic laser complements other pain management strategies and can be a big part of a multimodal pain management program as well as aid pets’ recovery from illness, injury, or surgery.  It can be paired with medications and supplements as well as acupuncture, massage, chiropractic care, hydrotherapy, and BEMER therapy – several of which we offer here at our office. It can be used with medications and other modalities to enhance the effects of each. It can also be a great option for help when a patient that’s in pain also has a condition that prohibits us from using traditional prescription pet medications, for example: heart, kidney or liver disease.


What Conditions can be Treated using Laser Therapy?

Cold laser therapy has been shown to be a successful treatment in a range of veterinary health issues, including but not limited to:

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Burns.

Chronic pain conditions.

Degenerative joint disease.

Back and joint pain.

Dental treatments.

Ear infections.

Hot spots.

Open wounds.

Soft tissue trauma.

Arthritis.

Muscle injury.

Fractured bones.

Gastrointestinal disorders.

Post-surgical pain and healing. 

What Does it Cost? Price depends on the number of treatment sites and the total number of sessions. We offer packages that allow you to prepay for several sessions and reduce the overall cost of treatment.

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Call our office for a customized treatment plan based upon your pet's individual condition. The possibilities are really without limit! Laser therapy for pets is a great tool to have in our arsenal.

 Our team strives to bring the best veterinary care to our community, and this is just one example of how we do so. If you have any questions about laser therapy or if it’s right for your beloved pet, don’t hesitate to contact us. We would love to help. 

 

Hours of Operation

Monday

8:00 am - 5:30 pm

Tuesday

8:00 am - 5:30 pm

Wednesday

8:00 am - 5:30 pm

Thursday

8:00 am - 5:30 pm

Friday

8:00 am - 5:30 pm

Saturday

9:00 am - 2:00 pm

Closed every other Saturday

Sunday

Closed

Monday
8:00 am - 5:30 pm
Tuesday
8:00 am - 5:30 pm
Wednesday
8:00 am - 5:30 pm
Thursday
8:00 am - 5:30 pm
Friday
8:00 am - 5:30 pm
Saturday
9:00 am - 2:00 pm Closed every other Saturday
Sunday
Closed

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