Hyperbaric oxygen therapy in Washington  (HBOT) saturates your body’s tissues with oxygen and helps reduce swelling, which can prevent the body from getting the oxygen it needs to function. It involves breathing 100% pure oxygen in a small room called a hyperbaric chamber. The chamber raises air pressure to a level two to three times higher than normal air pressure, allowing your lungs to collect more oxygen.

Most people associate HBOT with helping scuba and deep-sea divers who have the bends, a life-threatening condition caused by nitrogen bubbles that form in their lungs when they dive too deeply. But the treatment can also be used to treat a wide range of medical conditions, including non-healing wounds, carbon monoxide poisoning and some infections.

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy in Washington: Enhancing Healing and Wellness Through Pressurized Oxygen

Researchers have found that HBOT is effective in treating ear problems, such as an earache or fluid in the ears (effusion), a ruptured eardrum and tensor tympani muscle hemorrhage, as well as sinusitis and other respiratory conditions, like bronchiopulmonary aspergillosis. It is also being used in the veterinary field to help dogs with severe burns, and to speed up recovery from surgery, such as ovariohysterectomy or a splenectomy.

At our clinic, you’ll sit or lie comfortably in the HBOT chamber. You’ll wear a face mask that delivers filtered oxygen, and the chamber is filled to 1.3 times atmospheric pressure, which is similar to the concentration of oxygen you breathe in pressurized cabins on airplanes. The oxygen is concentrated so that it reaches all tissues, glands and organs in the body, doubling the amount of oxygen that can be absorbed.