What is electrical muscle stimulation?
Any physical medicine treatment modality that uses a medical device to deliver a small electrical current to the muscle, nerves, or soft tissue is electric muscle stimulation. There are a variety of devices that fall under this category and can be used for pain control, muscle rehabilitation, to nerve stimulation.
The most common device is a TENS Unit or TENS Machine. While there are a lot of variations, in general, there are three common types of electrical muscle stimulation or EMS. Learn more about each by clicking the links below.
Electric muscle stimulation is most commonly found in physical medicine provider offices such as chiropractors, physical therapists, and occupational therapists, and has been a common modality for decades.
More recently, smaller devices have become popular as home care devices to help with back pain, sciatica, and sore muscles.