When would a clinician try Tandem Point therapy?

Tandem Point therapy can be used for most myofascial pain and range of motion problems, including

• muscle overuse injury
  • one-time injury
  • sports injury
• repetitive stress injury (mixed results)
• accidents (usually, not always)
  • acute
  • chronic
• chronic pain without abrupt onset (usually requires maintenance treatment, especially stretching, posture training, and yoga)
• pain attributed to degenerative problems, such as degenerative disc, herniated disc, cervical spondylosis, osteoarthritis of the knees

Abrupt-onset injuries generally obtain better results with Tandem Point therapy than pain problems that began without an abrupt onset.

However, consider trying a muscle release approach on any non-inflamed muscle or joint pain problem. There is little to lose. Especially consider a muscle release approach before concluding that a patient's pain problem is due to disc degeneration, and therefore the pain can only be controlled and not eliminated. I will return to this topic later.

Relative to other techniques, Tandem Point therapy is especially well suited for problems involving

• small, severely contracted muscles, especially in tender areas of the body
• several muscles, especially agonists and antagonists in the same functional unit, such as in neck torsion syndrome
• muscles that are difficult or dangerous to needle, such as psoas major or the anterior scalene
• TMJ syndrome (patient can hold points in the medial pterygoid muscles)

When does Tandem Point therapy not release trigger points?

• patient is sick, or weak, or suffers from fatigue (as a general rule, if a patient is so ill or fatigued that an hour working out at the gym would exhaust the patient, then Tandem Point therapy is not indicated)
• patient has fibromyalgia [although with microcurrent support, Tandem Point therapy can sometimes be effective for local problems of fibromyalgia patients]
• patient is dehydrated
• patient is on a very restrictive diet or for whatever reason cannot get enough to eat
• patient has anemia
• patient has taken a long-distance airplane flight within 24 hours

Tandem point therapy is contraindicated for pregnant patients.

When is Tandem Point therapy not effective?

• patient has pain from swelling, inflammation, bruises, broken bones, torn ligaments, torn tendons, and so forth (Tandem Point therapy is not indicated)
• patient's pain is not related to muscle contracture
• osteoarthritis of the shoulder

[Question: What about phantom pain? Answer: I don't know. I've never seen a case of it. I would certainly be willing to try this approach. It is generally worth a try.]