What is Teacr Therapy and How can it be used within Clinical Treatment?
By Caily Morse (student Physiotherapist)
Tecar stands for Transfer of Energy Capacitive And Resisted. It uses high-frequency radio waves to generate heat within the body. This then accelerates the body’s natural healing process. The ideas surrounding Tecar therapy can date back to as early as 1890 with the discovery of the permeability of the plasmic membrane by a high frequency current by a French physicist, Jacques Arsene d’Aronval. However, the ‘Tecar’ as known today was formally patented in Italy as a contemporary form of electrotherapy in 1995.
How does it work?
There are different ways that Tecar therapy can help improve symptoms on a cellular level. One way is the effect on the body’s sodium ion channels. The Tecar can increase the rapid oscillation of electrolytes in the cell membrane, which increases the permeability. This then accelerates the sodium-potassium exchange that is needed for tissue repair and ATP production. Due to the increase in membrane permeability, there is also an increase in absorption of essential nutrients and expulsion of waste such as lactic acid, which in turn also speeds up recovery.
Another way Tecar therapy can accelerate healing is through the regulation of pro-inflammatory cytokines which reduces the chronic inflammation and calms overactive pain receptors, which allows for further treatment.
Capacitive Vs Resistive Electrodes:
The Tecar uses two different electrodes, Capacitive and the Resistive which create different reactions within the body tissues.
The Capacitive electrode targets soft tissue that is rich in electrolytes/ water, for example, muscles or the lymphatic system. This electrode doesn’t penetrate as deeply as the Resistive head, and its primary effect is to increase relaxation within muscles tissue and to help with lymphatic drainage and increase localised blood flow, which encourages healing.
The Resistive electrode can penetrate a lot deeper than the capacitive and is mainly aimed at low-water / high-density tissue such as the bones, joints, tendons. This can be particularly good for chronic pain, fibrosis and joint pathologies such as Osteoarthritis.
A key aim of the Resistive electrode is to create heat deep within the joint or tissue, which helps improve mobility and reduce stiffness, whilst stimulating blood flow and speeding up healing. All of which can be useful for chronic tendon and ligament issues, such as tendinopathies.
Key benefits of Tecar Therapy:
Tecar energy creates an oscillating electrical field in the tissues, producing a gentle thermal effect that:
- Increases local blood flow and oxygen delivery
- Stimulates fibroblast and cellular repair activity
- Encourages lymphatic drainage
- Modulates pain receptors at the neural level
- Relieves muscle spasms and improves range of motion
- Reduces both acute and chronic pain
TECAR is versatile and effective in treating a wide range of musculoskeletal and soft tissue conditions, including (but not limited to):
- Tendinopathies (e.g., Achilles, patellar, rotator cuff)
- Ligament injuries and sprains
- Muscle strain and contractures
- Joint stiffness, arthritis, and capsulitis
- Sciatica and nerve entrapments
- Plantar fasciitis
- Lower back pain and neck stiffness
- Post-surgical rehabilitation and treatment of scar tissue.
Key Benefits cont……
Tecar therapy is also excellent for reducing oedema buildup. For this reason Tecar can be used as a stand alone treatment or alongside manual techniques for lymphatic draining (MLD) treatment.
Teacr is also useful for post-exercise recovery, making it popular with athletes who would like to speed up muscle repair and to reduce post exercise soreness.
Sensitivity and wider use:
Because it uses heat, Tecar therapy is particularly useful for clients who are too sensitive for other modalities such as dry cupping or massage therapy. In these instances, clients can often tolerate the therapeutic heat that Tecar provides, and it can be used as a stand-alone treatment or to prepare the tissue for combination therapy, where it may be used alongside joint mobilisation, Dry Needling, Dry Cupping, manual massage or within Rehabilitation activities.
Want to learn how to use Tecar Therapy within Clinical Injury Treatment?
If you’re a qualified therapist at Level 4 or above and would like to experience the benefits of Tecar Therapy for yourself, you may be interested in our accredited CPD short course in Tecar Therapy.
This course covers both theory and practical application, which means you will get a chance to use different Tecar machines on different areas of the body for a range of injuries and conditions. As this is a small group course limited to 8 therapists, we can tailor practical activites to cover injuries which may be more applicable to your clinic.
To find out more please visit: Introduction to Tecar Therapy | Core Elements
By Caily Morse (student Physiotherapist and Core Elements Administrator)
Core Elements offers Sports Massage and Sports Therapy based training courses and an Injury Clinic
If you’d like to book an appointment at our Swindon based injury clinic, please Click Here
To find out more about our Introduction to Tecar Therapy short course in Swindon please Click Here