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IS NOW

Shockwave Therapy

Safe, Effective Pain Relief - Backed By Science.

Extracorporeal Shockwave Therapy is a gold standard treatment for soft tissue pain.

ShockwaveTherapy was originally researched and developed for the treatment of kidney stones. Decades of further research has established it is an excellent treatment for a wide range of  painful musculoskeletal  conditions.

At Featherston St Pain Clinic we are the only clinic on the Lower North Island using both Focused and Radial Shockwave for the treatment of chronic pain.

Pain Relief - That Actually Works

Scientific studies have shown shockwave is an effective treatment for a wide range of pain conditions.

Scientifically Proven Results

Research has shown shockwave can bring effective relief for a wide variety of painful conditions. Even those that are often resistant to other treatments.

Totally Non-Invasive

Shockwave has been proven through extensive research to be safe and non-invasive. It is a less risky option than pharmaceuticals & surgery.

Works On The Cause

Many treatments simply mask your pain symptoms. Shockwave promotes the body’s healing process, treating many pains at their root cause.

What Can Shockwave Therapy Help With?

– Calcifying tendinopathy of the shoulder.

– Rotator cuff tendinopathy.

– Impingement symptoms.

– Achilles tendinopathy 

– Foot and ankle tendinopathies

– Peroneal tendinopathy

– Tibial stress syndrome (shin splint)

– Lateral epicondylopathy of the elbow (tennis elbow) 

– Medial epicondylopathy of the elbow

– Plantar fasciitis, with or without heel spurs

– Foot and ankle tendinopathies

– Plantar fibromatosis

– Osteoarthritis

– De Quervain diseases 

– Trigger finger

– Dupuytren disease

– Bone pathologies

– Delayed bone healing 

– Bone Non-Union (pseudarthroses)

– Bone marrow edema

– Osteochondritis Dissecans (OCD) without articular derangement

– Osteoarthritis 

– Avascular bone necrosis without articular derangement.

– Adductor tendinopathy syndrome

– Osteoarthritis

– Patellar tendinopathy

– Pes-Anserine tendinopathy syndrome

– Osgood Schlatter disease

– Tendinopathies

– Myofascial Syndrome

– Muscle sprain without discontinuity

– Polyneuropathy

– Spasticity

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Online Consultation

Book an online consultation and get personalized advice from the comfort of your home. Our licensed practitioners are here to assess your concerns, provide expert diagnosis, and offer treatment recommendations—all through a secure virtual session.

Call or Text

027 508 8083

Email

tobias@severnclinics.co.nz

How Shockwave Therapy Works

Shockwave therapy uses a handheld device to fire high energy sound waves through the body’s bone and soft tissues – just like medical lasers do – but with sound. The sound waves can be focused on a single point up to a depth of up to 12 cm.

These sound waves were originally tested as a treatment for kidney stones. Interestingly, people in these initial trials also found that old pain complaints spontaneously resolved. Famously, one lady suffering from severe tissue death (osteonecrosis) in her hip bone caused by poor blood supply showed regenerated bone tissue.

Decades of research and clinical experience have now given us insight into why these spontaneous healings took place. Put simply, shockwave therapy triggers regenerative changes in living tissue, which in turn promotes healing. However, this explanation really only scratching the surface of what shockwave therapy can do.

Research has documented many powerful healing effects from shockwave therapy, including:

– Increased blood flow and vascular regeneration

– Reduction of pain signals.

– Regeneration of bone tissue.

– Prevention of cartilage degeneration.

– Increase in tissue ‘growth factors’.

– Reversal of chronic inflammation.

– Re-absorption of calcification in the tendon.

– Reducing tendinopathies

Contact us now to book a consultation!

Make An Appointment

The Shockwave Therapy Process

Step One – Initial Consultation 

We’ll take a look at what’s going on with your pain and diagnose what we think is likely causing it.

Step Two – Plan Of Management

We’ll determine how frequently treatment is required. For most people this will be either twice a week, weekly or fortnightly depending on what’s going on.

Step Three – Treatment 

We monitor your treatment very closely for the first four to six weeks and make sure you’re seeing the improvements we expect.

Step Four – Rehabilitation

Once your pain is gone, we’ll make sure it won’t come back! Many conditions that shockwave works for need strengthening exercises to help strengthen the muscles around the initial place of pain.

Take A Tour Of Our Wellington Clinic

Our team offers a wide range of treatments, helping you to achieve your recovery goals. 

Our Team

Tobias Hall

DC BSc. Hons. IIst Nat. Dip. NZCA

Kade Christensen

BHSc. (Paramedicine) EMT, CERT. ST

Zabad Michael

DPT (Doctor of Physiotherapy)

Our Locations

Wellington

Featherston Street Pain Clinic

3/23 Waring Taylor Street

Greytown

Main Street Pain & Injury Care

82 Main Street

Masterton

Jackson Street Pain & Injury Care

1 Jackson Street

Make A Booking

Please utilise our booking system for Wellington appointments by clicking the button below. For Wairarapa appointments, kindly use the appointment request form.

Appointment Request Form

If you are in a lot of pain and need an urgent appointment please call us.

If you need a regular appointment just fill out the form below and we will be in touch. 

Call Us

04 385 6446

Text Us

027 608 8083

Shockwave Research

Shockwave therapy has been heavily researched. Here’s a few studies that have looked into its benefits of the conditions it treats.

Summary: This article reviewed several studies looking at whether shockwave therapy is an effective treatment of musculoskeletal disorders. The researchers concluded Shockwave therapy is an effective treatment for musculoskeletal and orthopedic conditions and that it has the potential of replacing surgery in many orthopedic disorders without the surgical risks.

Read the full article here.

Summary: This article reviewed several studies looking at whether shockwave therapy is an effective treatment of musculoskeletal disorders. The researchers concluded Shockwave therapy is an effective treatment for musculoskeletal and orthopedic conditions and that it has the potential of replacing surgery in many orthopedic disorders without the surgical risks.

Read the full article here.

Summary: In a prospective study, researchers looked at whether shockwave effectively treats calcifying tendinitis of the rotator cuff. Patients were eligible for the study if they had more than a three-month history of calcifying tendinitis of the rotator cuff, with calcification measuring 10 mm or more in maximum dimension. People were split into two groups and received 2500 extracorporeal shockwaves using either radial or focussed shockwaves. Those in the focussed group showed greater improvements. The researchers concluded that people who have had a hard time recovering from calcifying tendinitis in their shoulder can see improvements after 3 months of focussed shockwave therapy.

Read the full article here.

Summary: This literature review looked at different research papers that had examined whether shockwave therapy was an effective treatment for chronic tendinopathies. Based on the evidence in the paper, the researchers concluded that shockwave therapy can help manage calcification of the supraspinatus and plantar fasciitis when nonsurgical treatments have failed. Shockwave therapy is even more effective if the person adminsterinting it asks for patient feedback while they’re doing so.

Read the full article here.

Summary: The researchers looked at the effectiveness for shockwave therapy at treating calcific tendinitis in their shoulder. People treated with shockwave showed improvement in their shoulder tendonitis and these improvements were still seen at a 6-month follow-up. The calcifications disappeared completely for 86.6% of those who’d received shockwave treatment.

Read the full article here.

Summary: This article reviews the evidence-based literature on shockwave therapy as a treatment for  chronic Achilles tendinopathy. Shockwave therapy is one of the most effective options for treating chronic Achilles tendinopathy.

Read the full article here.

Summary: The researchers aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of shockwave for lower limb tendinopathies, including pain in the greater trochanter, patella, and Achilles tendon. They didn’t carry out an experiment, but instead looked at the data from 13 other studies. Shock wave therapy is an effective intervention for treating greater trochanter, patella, and Achilles tendon tendinopathies, particularly when other nonoperative treatments have failed.

Read the full article here.

Summary: This study aimed to see if shockwave therapy could deliver long term relief for people with plantar fasciitis. In this study, people received shockwaves while others received nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Before treatment, the groups showed no significant differences in the scores for pain and function. After treatment, the shockwave group showed significantly better pain and function scores as compared with the control group, showing that shockwave is an effective treatment for plantar fasciitis.

Read the full article here.

Summary: This study aimed to look at if shockwave treatment could significantly reduce the pain of chronic plantar fasciitis. The researchers  took two baseline measurements that measure pain and limitations of activity and investigated if these measures of pain changed. Compared to their placebo group, the researchers observed greater success of improving heel pain by 60% using shockwave therapy. They concluded shockwave treatment is safe and effective, with plantar fasciitis pain improving 12 weeks after the treatment. The reduction in pain can last up to 12 months. The authors recommend shockwave for patients who are in a lot of pain, but have tried other treatments without success.

Read the full article here.

Summary: This study aimed to look at if shockwave treatment could significantly reduce the pain of chronic plantar fasciitis. The researchers  took two baseline measurements that measure pain and limitations of activity and investigated if these measures of pain changed. Compared to their placebo group, the researchers observed greater success of improving heel pain by 60% using shockwave therapy. They concluded shockwave treatment is safe and effective, with plantar fasciitis pain improving 12 weeks after the treatment. The reduction in pain can last up to 12 months. The authors recommend shockwave for patients who are in a lot of pain, but have tried other treatments without success.

Read the full article here.

Summary: The researchers reviewed evidence that shockwave therapy can keep the levels of nitrous oxide at a normal level and help to reduce the amount of inflammation in the body. One of the possible ways that shockwave therapy works is to keep the level of nitrous oxide in your body at a normal level. This makes it easier for your body to produce more nitrous oxide when it needs to. Keeping your nitrous oxide at a lower physiological level during the first few days of inflammation can help treat diseases that are caused by inflammation.

Read the full article here.

Summary: The authors reviewed results of the past 7 years in order to investigate the effect of shock wave therapy in nonunions of long bone fracture. A hypertrophic nonunion is when an abundant callus forms but the bone doesn’t heal properly. Extracorporeal shock wave therapy was successful in people with hypertrophic nonunions. The researchers concluded that shockwave is a good choice for people who have long bone fractures and it has not yet healed.

Read the full article here.

Shockwave FAQ

No you don’t, though we do accept referrals from other medical and allied health professionals. If you’re unsure if the treatment is right for you, booking in an initial consultation is your best option.

It depends on what you’re coming to us for and how long you’ve been experiencing pain. We will usually monitor you closely over the first 4-6 weeks of your treatment to see how you’re responding and then make a recommendation from there. If you’ve been experiencing pain for years you might require a longer bout of treatment.

Some people experience mild discomfort during the treatment session. You may have a slight tenderness the next day but again for most people this is minimal.

How quickly you feel a difference from shockwave therapy is influenced by several things, such as how long you’ve been experiencing pain, the root cause of your pain and how frequently you’re coming in for treatment. Many people describe feeling a difference after their first session and seeing improvement of their condition within the first 4-6 weeks. Though, like we said, everyone is different, for some people it can take longer until they feel a difference. We’ll make sure to talk you through your treatment plan in your initial consultation.

The most simple explanation is that not enough doctors or practitioners know about shockwave therapy! Although the benefits of Shockwave have been well documented, there’s limited practises in New Zealand that offer the treatment and therefore most doctors and practitioners have not heard of it.

Only a handful of clinics in New Zealand use Shockwave therapy. At Featherston St Pain Clinic we are the only clinic on the Lower North Island using both Focused and Radial Shockwave for the treatment of chronic pain

Because shockwave therapy can promote healing in the body it’s application isn’t limited to healing pain. It’s also been shown to improve the appearance of acne scars, surgical scars, keloid scars, cellulite and stretch marks. 

There’s also interesting research that shockwave therapy can treat erectile dysfunction.

If other treatments haven’t worked for you it’s very worthwhile investing in shockwave therapy. Research has shown that for some conditions, such as plantar fasciitis, long bone fractures, trochanter, patella, and Achilles tendon tendinopathies, shockwave is effective when other treatments have failed.

Not at all! In fact, quite the opposite. One of the effects demonstrated by shockwave therapy is its ability to regenerate bone tissue. For example, research has shown that shockwave therapy has been shown to be effective at healing long bone fractures when other treatment options have failed.