Alan King says, "TENS stands for Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation. It is one of the most widely used methods of treating pain to-day. The equipment includes a Tens unit or stimulator, which is a small battery driven box worn on the belt and has a number of control buttons, a pair of lead wires, and up to four electrodes or pads which are placed on the skin in specific positions. Placement is important. When the machine is switched on with the electrodes in position, the machine produces a small electric current which is felt as a tingle under one or both of each pair of electrodes."
Tens treatment works in several different ways and these depend upon how the buttons/swiches on the machine are set by you. The tens device can be set up to 'Block' the pain messages as they enter the spinal cord before they climb up to the brain. The settings used to achieve this are also thought to encourage the release of one of the body's own pain killing chemicals. Further specific adjustments to the machine modify the electrical output to stimulate nerves which carry messages up the spine to areas of the brain which produce morphine like molecules which, again, are the body's own natural pain killers.
  • TENS activates natural pain control mechanisms to which side effects are rare, usually things like allergy to the electrodes, and are easily solved.
  • TENS is patient based, not clinician based and puts pain management in the hands of the user.
  • TENS is available twenty-four hours a day three hundred and sixty-five days a year.
  • TENS is non-invasive.
  • TENS can be used on the move and so does not tie the user to home. Further, it enhances mobility which, in its self, will reduce pain.
  • TENS has a low initial cost with minimal running costs.
Chronic pain often occurs after all healing from trauma or surgery has taken place. Pain then, like that found in, for example, arthritis becomes a problem in its own right.

Alan King says "TENS has been used to successfully treat these pains in around eighty percent of those presenting at pain clinics. TENS is not a cure for pain . It is not used once or twice and the pain is banished forever, nor is it a panacea for all ills. It is a useful way of managing pain and getting back to a normal life where you are once again in control."