Your question was: Can Biofreeze be used for ultrasound, phonophoresis or iontophoresis?
Our experts said:
There is no evidence of the effectiveness of phonophoresis with Biofreeze or any other menthol-based topical analgesic. Since Biofreeze is electrically neutral, it should not be used for iontophoresis.
We do not recommend using Biofreeze as a 100% coupling agent during ultrasound since it may diminish the transmission of sound waves or damage the sound head crystals. Some studies have shown that mixing Biofreeze with ultrasound coupling gel at ratios between 3:1 (
Rigby et al. 2014) and 1:1 (
Myrer et al. 2001) of ultrasound gel to Biofreeze produce similar heating of the tissue as 100% ultrasound gel. These studies found no statistical difference in tissue heating (~87% of pure ultrasound gel) during 10 minutes of ultrasound at 1.0 w/cm
2 at 3 MHz. However, there is no evidence of the clinical benefit or harm associated with performing ultrasound treatments with Biofreeze mixtures.