Available in Newark, Wilmington, and Smyrna
Shockwave Therapy
Shockwave therapy uses acoustic energy to stimulate a healing response in stubborn tissue — the kind of chronic tendon, fascia, or peri-spinal irritation that did not finish healing on rest and ibuprofen.
Pure Wellness offers it in Newark, Wilmington, and Smyrna. That geographic limit is real. If you live in Dover or farther south and shockwave is the right tool, we will tell you which sister clinic to visit rather than pretend every office has every device.
It is often paired with chiropractic so the joint mechanics and the tissue quality are treated together. Athletes, repetitive-strain patients, and people with lingering plantar, elbow, or hip pain are typical candidates after exam.
Starting at $49 for exam and treatment on the advertised path; insurance and offer rules still apply. Book Newark, Wilmington, or Smyrna and ask for shockwave specifically.
Shockwave delivers high-energy acoustic pulses into tissue through a handpiece. What follows is not simply mechanical breakdown: the pulses trigger a cascade of biological responses including increased local blood flow, formation of new capillaries, release of growth factors, and — usefully for pain — a reduction in the concentration of substance P and a degree of nerve-ending desensitisation in the treated area. That combination is why it can help a tendon that has been unresponsive to rest, medication, and stretching for a year.
Understanding why chronic tendon problems behave this way makes the treatment logic clearer. The suffix in tendinitis implies inflammation, but tissue samples from long-standing cases show something different: disorganised collagen fibres, increased ground substance, abnormal blood vessel and nerve ingrowth, and very little inflammatory cell activity. The tendon has not stayed inflamed — it has failed to complete a repair and settled into a degenerative steady state. Anti-inflammatories address a process that is largely not happening, which is exactly why they disappoint.
Where shockwave fits in the sequence matters. It is not a first-line treatment. The first line for tendinopathy is progressive loading — heavy, slow resistance work that stimulates collagen remodelling — combined with load management and addressing whatever mechanical factor overloaded the tendon. Shockwave is what we add when three months of that has stalled, and it works considerably better alongside continued loading than as a standalone. Patients who stop their exercises because they are having shockwave get worse results.
The geographic limit is real and we would rather state it clearly than have someone drive to the wrong office. Newark, Wilmington, and Smyrna have the equipment. Middletown and Camden/Dover do not. If you are a Dover or Kent County patient and shockwave is the right tool for your case, we will tell you which clinic to book and coordinate with your existing chart rather than pretending every office has every device.
A session is short and requires no preparation. Gel is applied over the treatment area, the handpiece is worked over the affected tissue for roughly fifteen minutes, and you go straight back to your day. We ask patients to avoid anti-inflammatory medication around the treatment course where it is safe to do so, because the whole point is to allow an inflammatory healing response rather than suppress it, and to avoid heavy loading of the treated tendon for two days afterwards.
Pricing starts at $49 for exam and treatment on the advertised path, at Smyrna, Wilmington, and Newark. Insurance coverage for shockwave is limited and varies by plan, so we verify benefits before a course rather than leaving you to find out afterwards.
Starting at $49 for exam and treatment. Available at Smyrna, Wilmington, and Newark.
Although welcome for treatment, these patients are excluded from offers: 1) MEDICARE, MEDICAID, TRICARE, and other government healthcare program participants and 2) personal injury and worker's compensation claimants. The exam charge includes a detailed verbal report of your exam findings delivered at a follow-up appointment. If you choose to utilize health insurance, the amount you pay may be lower than the advertised fees.
Where to book
Related conditions
Doctors often involved
FAQ
Which clinics offer shockwave?
Newark, Wilmington, and Smyrna only. Middletown and Camden/Dover do not currently list shockwave.
What does it feel like?
A tapping or pulsing over the treatment site. Most sessions are about 15 minutes. Soreness afterward is possible, similar to focused tissue work.
What conditions does shockwave work best for?
The strongest evidence is in chronic tendon problems that have already failed a proper loading programme: plantar fasciopathy, calcific and non-calcific rotator cuff tendinopathy, tennis and golfer's elbow, greater trochanteric pain at the hip, patellar tendinopathy, and Achilles tendinopathy. It is not a general pain treatment, and we do not offer it as one.
How many sessions will I need?
Usually three to five, spaced about a week apart. Improvement is typically gradual rather than immediate and often continues for eight to twelve weeks after the final session, because the effect works through a healing response rather than through pain blocking. If there has been no change at all after three sessions, continuing is rarely the right call.
Why does it work on old injuries when rest did not?
Because long-standing tendon problems are usually not inflammatory. The tissue has become degenerative, with disorganised collagen and poor blood supply, and it has essentially stopped trying to heal. Rest and anti-inflammatories do very little for that state. The acoustic waves create a controlled micro-trauma that restarts the healing response and stimulates new blood vessel formation in tissue that had gone quiet.
Who should not have shockwave?
We do not treat over an area with a blood clot, over a tumour, over an open growth plate in a child, in pregnancy, or in patients on anticoagulant therapy or with a bleeding disorder. We also avoid treating directly over nerves, major vessels, the lungs, or the spinal cord. Recent cortisone injection to the same site is a reason to wait rather than a permanent exclusion.
Does it hurt?
There is discomfort during treatment — a firm, rapid tapping that is more intense over the most affected tissue, which is genuinely a useful diagnostic signal in itself. Intensity is adjustable and we work within what you can tolerate. Most sessions last around fifteen minutes and mild soreness for a day or two afterwards is normal.