Focused shockwave machines deliver concentrated energy deep into tissue and have research backing for erectile dysfunction, while radial machines scatter energy superficially and work better for musculoskeletal pain. The Chattanooga device is an example of focused technology; radial devices sound like jackhammers and lack convincing evidence for ED.
Questions this video answers
Chattanooga.
Up to about six inches (deep, pinpoint focus).
About 4 centimeters (≈2 inches).
About 2,000–3,000 pulses per treatment.
About 15,000–20,000 pulses per treatment.
Chapters
Hello there, I'm Dr. Anne Truong and today I want to talk about the differences between shockwave therapy of the focus machine and shockwave therapy with the radial machine. It's a big difference. First of all, I want to show you what it looks like, alright? So when you say the word shockwave, not all shockwaves are the same. It's like saying all cars are the same. That is not the case at all. Shock wave, there's a lot of research that's been done on the focus shockwave. And this is the focus shock wave. And I happen to use the one that by Chattanooga. And it's focused, you can see the F right here. And the screen looks like this is the intensity and the amount of shocks and the frequency. And it looks like a little laser like this. And when you use it for ed, when you use it for ed, it has a little standoff, alright? And it has a screen and it looks like this. It doesn't sound like a jackhammer that you would hear on common shockwave machine. The one that sounds like a jackhammer is this one. I'll talk about that. So the focus machine, think of it like a laser. It goes down deep, down to almost six inches. And the energy goes deep as well. And that it goes like a laser, it goes down like a pinpoint and it acts to the cellular level. So what it does is that it stimulates the organ or the structure that you're working on to have decreased inflammation and for it to have new cellular rejuvenation or new blood flow or angiogenesis. Think of it as cleaning the bad stuff and bringing the good stuff in with new blood flow. That's why it's being studied and used for erectile dysfunction. Now when you turn, when you use the Focus chocolate for ed, listen to this. So when you use it, alright, you go up and down on the penis like that for the shockwave. And in our clinic we do 5A treatment area for the penis. Listen to the sound. It sounds tick tock, tick tock, tick tock, very like a low sound, unlike. So this machine right here, underneath, right here is another shockwave machine. But it's called Radial R, a radio dial. It's not as strong as the focus and the energy, it only goes to about 4 centimeter or like 2 inches. And when the energy of the sound wave hit the tissue, it's dispersed like an umbrella. So it doesn't go as deep and it disperse out. So it treats more superficial area. And it actually is post therapy, it is post Therapy, it's not sound wave therapy and it looks like a gun. So most of the machine looks like a gun and the treatment sounds much different. Now listen to the treatment. All right, so the sound sounds like a jackhammer and it's high frequency, it's very, very loud. And actually this will actually hurt more than the focus. So if you're treating it to the penis, this may hurt more. And this use the treatment is usually about 15,000 to about 20,000 pulses versus the focus. It maybe ranges between 2,000 to 3,000 pulses per treatment. Now the radial treatment sometimes used twice a week for six weeks for 12 sessions or once a week for six sessions, depending on the severity. Now of note, there has been no research study that has looked at using the radial post therapy machine or shockwave machine that has been effective for ED. There was one study by Sandoval in April 2022 which looked at the radial machine for ED. It has not been shown to be effective for ED versus the focus shock wave, which has been many papers, hundreds of papers that had been done and looked at it and has shown to be effective for ed. Once again, this is more like a laser, stronger and it sounds like this. And you can treat it to the penis, but you can also use this for pain treatment such as rotator shoulder, elbow with your hand, foot, knee, hip and even the back. So we use this to treat the back as well. Now we also use this to treat for pain, but we never use the radial machine for erectile dysfunction because it's not been proven to work. But it is effective for pain management where we have to work on the muscle, getting more flexibility of the muscle and getting more flexibility of the soft tissue underneath the skin. I wanted to end that and show you the difference between the focus shockwave and the post therapy shockwave with this is the radial machine. Again, this is the one that sounds like a jackhammer. And I know that lots of my patients get this treatment for ed, but it doesn't work. Now it may help in mild cases, but for cases that you have to revert to taking Viagra or Cialis may not work at this time. But just know that no research study has shown that this has been effective for ed. Again, the sound. So this is a jackhammer type like sound at this point. And so I want you to be aware of the difference between shockwave machine and that. If you're shopping for shockwave machine for ed, know that you need to look for the focus machine. Alright? You want to call the clinic where you're going to and ask for the focus machine, what type of focus machine and how many treatment. And then you want to know what, whether they're using the radio machine, which sounds like a jackhammer as well. So be informed. And that is the end of today's video. So have a great day.
