Walk me through the process.

When you come in, I examine you to make sure that prolotherapy is indicated. I may take an x-ray to make sure there’s not some other source of your pain that I can’t solve. Then, we use sterile technique, and I use a 50% dextrose solution with lidocaine so it doesn’t hurt as much. I give the injections in the appropriate areas.

The first office visit takes 15-30 minutes. But after that, once we know your problem, you could be in and out of the office in five minutes. I start my office hours at 7:00 a.m.

How do you know where to inject?

A lot of that comes with experience. I’ve had the advantage of being a classically trained orthopedic surgeon. So, I’ve seen the anatomy of 1000’s of people from the inside. So I tend to know where things are. I have very good eye-hand coordination and skills, to know where the tendons are supposed to be. So I can coordinate that with my judgment.

You have to apply the needle to the ligament/bone interface – where the ligament inserts into to the bone. You have to know where that is, and you have to know how deep to go with the needle. Obviously, experience counts.