TENS uses sticky pads on your skin to send a mild electrical tingle. It is the calm-down step at the end of a visit. The tingle travels on the same nerves that carry pain and turns the pain signal down.
Your physician orders this treatment and sets how strong it is. You only get it if it is ordered for you.
What is TENS (gentle electrical stimulation)?
TENS uses sticky pads on your skin to send a mild electrical tingle. It is the calm-down step at the end of a visit.
How does it help?
The tingle travels on the same nerves that carry pain and turns the pain signal down. Many people feel relief during and after the treatment.
What does it feel like?
A strong but comfortable tingle, never painful. Your technician gives you a call button and checks on you at 5 minutes.
Who should not have it?
- A pacemaker or implanted stimulator
- The belly or low back during pregnancy
- The front of the neck, the eyes or across the chest
- Broken skin or a blood clot
- The head or neck if you have a seizure history
Before every visit, your technician asks safety questions out loud. If anything has changed, the physician decides before the treatment starts. You can ask to stop at any time.
How long does it take?
About 15 minutes.
What to remember
- Strong but comfortable tingle; never pain.
- Use the call button if anything changes.
- Never on the front of the neck or across the chest.
Show us you have it: Tell us where the pads may and may not go. We go over it again at your next visit, and you can ask us to explain anything a second time.
Read more: the home TENS unit.
Other treatments in the program
- Heat and cold therapy
- Vibration therapy
- Traction chair
- Neck decompression
- Laser therapy
- Shockwave therapy
This is part of our physician-directed physiotherapy program, where a physician orders and supervises every treatment and no treatment starts unless a physician is available right away.
Medically reviewed by Dr. Gurpreet Singh Padda, MD, MBA, MHP. Board Certified in Anesthesiology, Pain Medicine, Interventional Pain Management, Addiction Medicine, and Obesity Medicine. Last reviewed October 18, 2026.