You'll find new services and new service providers appearing each month especially in the health care arena. With the advent of accreditation many medical suppliers will find that it's hard to keep up due to increasing regulatory costs and decreasing revenues but some have acquired good reputations in addition to a large number of loyal clients. A few of these could be seen as quite outstanding, worth more attention and checking out. Amongst the relatively recent companies out there that supply Tens and interferential units, both used to block the pain signals along sensory nerve routes, the companies must innovate to stay alive. One revolutionary change for pain management has been the combination of tens and interferential in one unit for home treatment that is covered by almost all insurance companies including Medicare and Medicaid. Here is more information on what has been the most recent innovation for pain management and innovation in the medical world. Interferential Stimulation differs from TENS because it allows a deeper penetration of efficacious electrical current in the tissue with more comfort (compliance) and increased circulation. For example, at a frequency of 4,000 Hz (Interferential unit) capacitive skin resistance is eighty (80) times lower than with a frequency of 50 Hz (in the TENS range). There is no real magic to choosing 8,000 versus 12,000 other than the engineering concern over battery capacity, which has been the engineering task for the past 35 years to make a portable interferential unit. Now with one unit having an AC adaptor as well as a battery life of 80 minutes the challenge has been met with a portable interferential unit. TENS (Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation) was designed to stimulate sensory nerve endings in order to decrease the perception of pain. The stimulus blocks pain signals passing along the nerves to the central nervous system. There are many articles that also say TENS will produce excess production of natural pain killers which will control pain but in practice this methodology with TENS rarely is efficacious. TENS blocks pain signals to the brain/spinal cord. TENS stimulation is characterized by biphasic (positive/negative) balanced charges and user selectable pulse width and pulse rate. Interferential therapy (IF/ IFC) is often described as 'deep TENS'. Interferential therapy is two high frequencies of 4,000 cycles per channel, overlapping, resulting in 8,000+ pulses per second in the affected area. That enables the electrical currents to penetrate deeper into the tissues. The extra frequency allows the frequency over 8,000,(1- 150) the benefit of low frequency stimulation without the uncomfortable effects of TENS. Interferential therapy offers not only pain relief, but also contributes to acceleration in healing, increased blood flow and edema reduction. The basic goal of interferential current therapy is to give a pleasant sensation during treatment and achieve deeper tissue penetration allowing carryover pain relief. The uncomfortable sensation felt by many patients using TENS is due to the resistance of the skin to the passing electrical currents. The level of discomfort is inversely proportional to the frequency of stimulation. Hence, the lower the frequency applied, the greater is the discomfort felt. Interferential current therapy uses two medium frequencies applied at the same time in such way that their paths cross and interfere with each other. The interference between them leads to changes producing modulated frequency that has the same therapeutic effects as low frequency stimulation, but without the normal side effects of unpleasant sensation or discomfort. Interferential therapy is safe and has no side effects. While the interferential therapy is very effective, it causes a minimum skin sensation and the level of discomfort related to the electrical stimulation. Conditions that respond to TENS & Interferential include the following: -Rheumatoid Arthritis, -Osteoarthritis, -Post Amputation Pain/Phantom Limb Pain -Back Pain, -Lumbago, -Sciatica, -Whiplash, -Sports Injuries, -Neuralgia, -Skeletal Pains, -Muscle Pain, -Cancer Pain, -Menstrual Pain, -Labour Pain, -Tension - Migraine -Travel Sickness -Insurance Reimbursable Tens has been recognized as efficacious and the rent and purchase paid by almost all major insurance companies for decades, including Medicare (HCFA), when used for chronic pain. Medicare will pay for an interferential treatment in a health facility but does not pay for the rental/purchase of an interferential unit. Many patients have not had the money to pay out of pocket for an interferential unit even though the benefits are obtained in the clinical setting. In certain instances a patient may have coverage for "DME", durable medical equipment, such as wheelchairs, potty seats, canes, crutches, and walkers. If the patient has DME coverage then in almost all situations Interferential may be covered. The combination of TENS and IFC in one unit now means when the unit is prescribed for chronic pain that even Medicare will cover it. The new combination IFC/TENS device with both modalities will open up new treatment parameters for patients now that an IFC unit can be rented or purchased by a patient. Here is a video on how to use the Infrex Plus unit on tens and interferential modes:
Article Source: http://www.bizymoms.com/expert-advice
Bob Johnson is owner/founder of MedFaxx, Inc. an ACHC & Medicare approved provider of electrotherapy devices. The web site is: www.medfaxxinc.com