The most prevalent type of back pain is lumbar pain. This pain affects the lower back area. It can cause decreased range of motion and stiffness, making it harder to stand up straight. Acute low back pain is what most people have and it can hang around for a few days or weeks. Moreover, acute low backache occurs when there is an abrupt injury to the muscles and ligaments that support the back. As well as this, it can result from a ligament or muscle tear, strain or spasm. This is the kind of pain that you suddenly feel after you attempt to lift a heavy load, make a sudden move, sit down for too long or experience a serious accident that affects your lower back. If you feel acute pain, call a back pain specialist NJ as soon as possible.
Sudden lumbar spine pain
Besides cold and flu, lumbar spine pain is the next reason why most people in the U.S visit their doctors. The lower back area is prone to harm because it offers support to most of your body’s weight. If your low back pain comes suddenly, go get examined by the leading back pain specialist New Jersey area as you cannot tell whether it is triggered by the following:
- Spine tumor which is cancerous
- Compression fractures due to a disease like osteoporosis
- Tense muscles that cause muscle spasms
- Spinal cord fracture
- Narrowing of the spinal canal, otherwise known as spinal stenosis.
- Herniated disk
- Ruptured disk
- Sciatica pain
- Scoliosis or kyphosis– inherited spinal curvatures disorders
- Torn or strained back muscles or ligaments.
While some of the above-mentioned issues might not sound too serious, you must get checked by a highly qualified pain management New Jersey doctor. He or she will rule out serious health problems and treat your back in the safest and most effective way possible. Low back pain can also be triggered by problems such as the following:
- Arthritic diseases: rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis or osteoarthritis.
- A leaking abdominal aortic aneurysm.
- Pregnancy weight
- Infections of the kidneys or having kidney stones
- Female reproductive system disorders: ovarian cysts, endometriosis, uterine fibroids and ovarian cancer.
- Osteomyelitis, abscess, diskitis and other infections of the spine
Having your lumbar spine area examined by the right back pain doctor NJ is the beginning of your healing. Acute pain that is left untreated and has been around for several weeks can advance to chronic pain level. As you don’t want to always live with pain in your lumbar area, get in touch with a great back pain specialist New Jersey clinic. A number of symptoms can be felt when one has hurt their back. First, you might have uncomfortable sensations such as burning and tingling.
Apart from these, your pain might be sharp, dull and achy, mild or serious. If your pain has become so bad that you can’t move, then it is time to visit a good back pain doctor NJ. Depending on the cause of your backache, pain might shift to your lower extremities: hips, buttocks, legs and/or the base of your feet. General weakness may be felt in either your leg or foot.
Seek tests and exams from a pain management New Jersey doctor
As soon as you visit the right back pain doctor NJ, you will answer a number of questions. The answers you provide will assist your back specialist develop a suitable treatment plan. If your pain occurs regularly and is always severe, then your back pain specialist New Jersey will be determined to locate the root cause. Acute pain tends to improve even without surgery and when simple treatment techniques are applied: medicines, physical therapy, ice compresses, massage and other non-medical strategies.
There will be a physical exam where your back pain doctor NJ will try to locate the exact origin of the ache and how it changes your normal movement. In just four to six weeks, your backache will get better. In your first visit, your back pain doctor NJ healthcare provider may not perform any test unless your backache is too serious. But in your next appointment, they will perform the following X-rays. If these don’t provide concrete information, your back pain specialist New Jersey might order a CT scan and/or MRI scan.
lumbosacral spine CT scan
This is a computed tomography or CT scan of the lower spine and the adjacent tissues. A lumbosacral CT is done while a patient is lying down on their back on a table that slides into the middle of the scanner. Note that even the slightest body movements can lead to blurred images. Next, the scanner’s x-ray beam spins around the patient as its tiny detectors compute the amount of rays that reach the area being scanned. The information is then computed and used to create images (slices) that can be watched on a computer monitor or printed on a film. The selected back pain specialist New Jersey hospital can also come up with 3D models of organs using the same images or slices.
There are times when back doctors prefer to inject the patient’s vein with an iodine-based dye (contrast). This dye is able to select certain areas in the body, resulting to clearer images. There will be no pain at all during this test, although the injected contrast might cause a slight burning sensation, warm flushing of the body or metallic taste in your mouth. Any of these sensations are considered normal and go away within no time. But, if you have an iodine allergy, then you might notice itching, hives, breathing difficulties or nausea.
The lumbosacral spine CT scan can be so useful when the pain management physician wants to see changes in your spine. It can spot arthritis, deformities or fractures. Abnormal results mean that you might have the following: cyst, infection, herniated disc, pinched nerve, tumor, osteoarthritis, osteomalacia or vertebral fracture. Don’t do a CT scan if you have kidney issues and are undergoing dialysis, are pregnant or breastfeeding or live with diabetes. Tell your back pain doctor NJ first.
Lumbar spine MRI scan
A MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scan of the lower back is often used to find the real cause of pain that does not seem to end or pain that spreads to the legs. It uses strong magnets’ energy to make images of the lower area of your spine. These images are called slices and can be saved on a computer or printed on a film. While wearing a hospital garment without anything metallic, you will be asked to lie on a narrow table that will then be pushed into a big tunnel-like tube. Then the back pain doctor NJ who is running the MRI machine will monitor you from another room.
The test might take thirty to sixty minutes or longer. Sometimes an MRI exam requires a contrast (special dye) that can either be provided intravenously via a vein or injected into a vein. This contrast is used when the back pain specialist New Jersey expert wants to view given areas of your lower back better. It is important not to eat or drink about four to six hours prior to doing this scan. Additionally, one should remove metal jewellery: hair pins, finger rings, earrings, eyeglasses, pocketknife, watch and related things should be removed before the test. As well, tell the physician if you have the following:
- Heart defibrillator
- Cochlear or inner ear implants
- Artificial joints that are nearly placed
- Artificial heart valves
- Given kinds of vascular stents
- Brain aneurysm clips
If you have backache plus fever, or an injury to the lower spine area, your back pain specialist New Jersey might order an MRI scan. The same is the case if you have a past with cancer, have cancer symptoms and lower back pain. Finally, a back pain doctor NJ may use a MRI test to find out whether you have birth defects of the lower spine.
Treatment plan
After carrying out thorough tests on your lower back, your back pain doctor NJ will determine the best way to treat you. Based on how serious your back pain is, he or she may decide to treat you with medicines or surgery. Surgery always comes last or when all the other techniques have failed to provide relief. Pain medicines such as NSAIDs and analgesics are provided first to ensure pain relief and reduce inflammation. If the condition worsens, your back pain doctor NJ might prescribe muscle relaxants, narcotics, or epidural injections.
The injections are meant for soft tissues surrounding your spine and their work is to block nerve conduction, which reduces pain. Electrical stimulation is another technique used to alleviate backache. Offered in the form of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation or TENS, electrical stimulation can decrease pain by taking small amounts of electrical current to certain key points on a given nerve pathway. Electrodes will first be attached to the skin to help with the delivery of electric current and this is painless.
Some back pain specialist New Jersey clinics prefer to use a multidisciplinary approach to treating low back pain. This may entail a special program consisting of a number of techniques used together: vocational counselling, cognitive behaviour, education, physical therapy, exercise, and more.
Cognitive behaviour therapy is a talk therapy that instils positive thinking behaviour especially when facing chronic low back pain that doesn’t seem to have a cause. When at home, you can try cold and heat compresses to alleviate your backache. This may relieve your muscle tension by causing relaxation and reducing inflammation and swelling. However, you should apply a cold compress for 2 to 3 days prior to using a hot compress.
If these don’t heal your bad back, your back pain specialist New Jersey expert might recommend surgery. But, this is if physical therapy has not produced positive results too. As well as this, if your bad back is as a result of a cancerous tumor, or a fracture, there is no way physical therapy or medicines will be a long-term solution. The real cause of pain must be removed via back surgery or another treatment technique. Back surgery can vary widely based on where exactly it is to be performed and what is being removed.
If there is a herniated disc that is pressuring a nerve, then diskectomy is the right surgical procedure. If you have spinal stenosis, the right procedure to undergo is laminectomy. There are other surgical procedures too that your back pain doctor NJ might perform on your back, including vertebroplasty. Surgery has its pros and cons, explaining why it is picked as the last resort.
Selecting a suitable pain management New Jersey doctor
There are several doctors online who claim to provide the most reliable back pain treatments. Some tell the truth and others don’t. Still you are going to find some back pain specialist New Jersey hospitals that are just interested in making money out of you. To make sure you get the best treatment, take the time to search for the top specialists in New Jersey and to thoroughly screen each one of them. We would like to recommend Dr. Faisal Mahmood, a properly trained spine and orthopaedic expert. Alumni of the Millburn High School who become one of the top students, Dr Mahmood went to John Hopkins University for his undergraduate studies.
And while still in college, he did a lot of community health work, orthopaedic research and public health outreach. After his graduation, he went back to New Jersey to study medicine at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. While there, he did more community health work and orthopaedic research at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City. Dr. Faisal Mahmood became a chief resident at St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center/Seton Hall University and is an internationally recognized researcher and author.
Also a fellow, Dr.Faisal went to the Twin Cities Spine Center for his fellowship training where he gained lots of knowledge on minimally invasive spinal treatment techniques. This makes him one of the most educated and trusted orthopaedic doctors around and you can trust him to treat your back condition.