How do I Find a Good Knee Pain Treatment Center? Medical Group Answers
Sep 06, 2019
How do I Find a Good Knee Pain Treatment Center?
Knee pain is a very common musculoskeletal issue for which people visit the doctor. The knee bends, straightens, and supports the complete body. It also facilitates movement and it can twist and rotate. The knee also includes four bones, ligaments, and tendons. Knee injury or impact on any of these parts of the body can result in chronically painful knee joint injury.
When you suffer from knee pain, you may experience symptoms like swelling, stiffness, general weakness, popping sounds in your knees, inability to walk straight, possible fever, and severe knee pains. You may suffer from knee pain from an acute injury or from chronic issues. Acute knee injury causes include fractures, torn meniscus, and ligament injuries while chronic injuries include knee osteoarthritis, runner’s knee, tendonitis, bursitis, and other conditions.
There are a lot of different causes and factors for knee pain and knee injury. That’s why it’s important to find the right knee pain doctor who can diagnose the exact root cause of knee pain and treat it permanently. Some doctors simply prescribe opioids, which can actually lead to addictions without actually treating the root cause of knee pain. Some doctors also jump straight to surgical options when there are plenty of minimally invasive non-surgical options available.
You might be wondering “how do I find a good knee pain treatment center”. In this article, we discuss the qualities of the best knee pain treatment centers and effective knee pain treatment options.
Board-Certified Knee Joint Doctors
When you’re looking for a good knee pain doctor, it’s important to make sure that the doctor is board certified in the field of pain management and medicine. To achieve board certification, doctors have to go through rigorous residency training and fellowships, which ensures that they’re adequately experienced and skilled. Board certification isn’t necessary to become a pain doctor, but it helps you select the best knee pain doctors.
Educational Background
You should look for pain management doctors who have an Ivy League education or those who are educated from similarly well-reputed universities. This is yet another factor that ensures that your pain doctor is experienced and skilled.
Interventional Pain Specialists
Several different types of pain doctors are qualified to deal with knee injuries and knee pain.
- Palliative Specialists: These pain doctors are trained to deal with chronic pain caused by underlying illnesses like cancer. They deal with the psychological and emotional requirements of the patient and often prescribe painkillers and opioids. However, they don’t treat the underlying root cause of knee pain.
- Chronic Pain Specialists: These doctors primarily focus on providing painkillers and opioids to temporarily deal with the pain. This is only a band-aid issue and it doesn’t address the root cause of your knee pain. Furthermore, the United States is currently in the throes of an opioid epidemic due to the overprescription of these extremely addictive medications. You should avoid these pain doctors.
- Interventional Pain and Spine Specialists: These are knee pain doctors with special training in the treatment of knee pain and other types of pain. They diagnose the root cause of your knee pain and they treat it using minimally invasive and non-surgical options. They also usually avoid surgeries because there are far more effective minimally-invasive options available.
As you can see, there are several different types of knee pain doctors you can go to. But you should look for interventional pain and spine specialists because they’re the only ones who can actually treat the root cause of your knee pain permanently or for a long period of time.
Friendly Staff
In addition to the quality of the doctors, you should also make sure that the pain treatment clinic has a friendly and patient staff. The staff should be willing to discuss the entire procedure with you so you are both emotionally and physically comfortable. They should also take all of your concerns into consideration.
Minimally Invasive Treatment Options
As previously mentioned, you should completely avoid opioids for pain treatment because they are highly addictive and they don’t treat the root cause of your knee pain. You should also avoid surges because they have a high risk of complications. You should, instead, look for a knee pain treatment center that focuses entirely on minimally invasive and non-surgical treatment options. The following are some of the best minimally invasive knee pain treatments.
Corticosteroids
Steroid injections are the best and most non-invasive method to relieve knee pain. This is a procedure in which a medicine is injected into the knees to decrease inflammation caused by various conditions.
Viscosupplementation
Viscosupplementation is a procedure in which hyaluronic acid — an important part of the human joint fluid — is injected into the knee joints to supplement the naturally-occurring joint fluid. This reduces friction and minimizes knee pain caused by conditions like osteoarthritis.
Genicular Nerve Block
Genicular Nerve Block is a procedure in which local anesthetic is used to numb the genicular nеrvеѕ that are transmitting pain signals to your brain. Several injections have to be administered to block out all of these nerves. The relief provided by this method is short-lived. After this, the doctor may recommend Genicular Radiofrequency Ablation. This procedure is suitable for those who suffer from knee pain after knee replacement surgery.
Schedule your Knee Pain Treatment
Pain Treatment Specialists is one of the best pain treatment centers in the country because we focus entirely on minimally invasive treatments and we have some of the country’s best board-certified interventional pain specialists. For more information, please schedule a knee pain treatment today.