Back pain can affect the upper, middle or lower area of your spine. While upper back pain is less frequent, it is still a bother to some people. In deed, upper backache is one of the problems that people refer to the best back pain doctor Manhattan area. It is the topic we will cover in this article. The upper back area is also called the thoracic spine and it is right beneath the cervical spine (neck area) and above the lower back (lumbar spine). As it is the steadiest component of the spine, thoracic spine is quite safe from the things that cause pain in either the cervical spine or lumbar spine.
The range of movement in your upper back is quite small because this spinal area gets reinforcement from the rib cage. When this spinal area aches, there is usually a soft tissue injury or tension in a muscle due to bad posture. If you experience serious discomfort that does not go away, seek the most reliable back pain treatment Manhattan services. This will permit the right pain management Manhattan expert to investigate the origin of your discomfort.
Signs that your upper back has a problem
If your thoracic spine hurts, chances are that you have a sprain, a strain or muscle tension. These soft tissue injuries can trigger symptoms such as pain, tightness, muscle spasm, stiffness, headache, and tenderness when touched. A back pain doctor Manhattan clinic needs to examine your spine now, if you have similar symptoms. Pain can be felt when we are taking a deep breath, sneezing or coughing because our upper back is attached to the ribs. In case you feel this sort of pain right now, locate the best back pain treatment Manhattan hospital and go there in person for a checkup. By the time you leave, you will have known the exact cause of your thoracic spine discomfort.
Causes of upper back pain
Thoracic pain does no just happen; it is triggered by an unsafe movement or activity. So if you feel it, chances are that you have twisted your back insecurely or perhaps you have bent it excessively. Furthermore, you may have lifted a heavy load improperly or have recently gotten into a vehicle accident that caused a whiplash injury. As well as this, your neck injury pain may be radiating to the upper back area. If you smoke, do contact sports or carry a heavy backpack bag often, these could be the reasons why you feel pain in your thoracic back.
Poor muscle tone, obesity and repetitive movements or overuse might result to upper spine backache. To know the true cause of your discomfort, call the most dependable back pain doctor Manhattan area. Generally, people who use computers everyday for several hours are likely to suffer from upper back ache. Their risk is even bigger if they keep a poor posture when working. It is advisable, therefore, to take regular breaks if your work routine involves the computer.
Otherwise, you may possibly seek a back pain treatment Manhattan service soon because of feeling thoracic pain. Poor postures can lead to muscle strain and muscle tiredness. So, if you take a step to correct your posture, you might not need the help of a pain management Manhattan doctor at all.
How bad is thoracic spine pain and must you seek the help of a pain management Manhattan specialist?
Like several other people, you may be consoling yourself that the pain will go away soon. What you could be missing is the fact that there might an underlying medical condition affecting this part of your spine. While thoracic spine pain is not something you should worry about, it should not be ignored either. This type of pain can worsen and make your life so uncomfortable and difficult. Hence, if your symptoms worsen progressively, it is a sign that you require the assistance of a back pain doctor Manhattan.
Likewise, if pain comes suddenly and becomes so severe, don’t hesitate to seek medical help. This can happen from a sudden fall or perhaps when one is involved in a vehicle accident. If you want to wait a little while and then get back pain treatment Manhattan help, then you should try to nurse your painful back in the following ways:
- ü Take regular short-lived rests
- ü Stretch gently as long as the pain is not agonizing.
- ü Take Over-the-Counter (OTC) drugs that are made to reduce pain: motrin, Aleve, Tylenol and ibuprofen. Ensure that you take any of these drugs with food.
- ü Ice is always great when there is pain or swelling. Therefore, get a cold ice pack, wrap it in a towel and apply to the aching area of your thoracic spine. Keep repeating this every two to three hours for twenty minutes.
- ü After applying ice, you can apply heat. However, use a heat pack after three days have passed. As soon as you apply it to the upper back area, try to stretch it slightly to relax the muscles, reduce stiffness and enhance mobility.
If you carry out the aforementioned steps without success, go see the most trusted back pain doctor Manhattan region, including Dr. Michael Nguyen, M.D. He or she might prescribe a muscle relaxant drug prior to giving you trigger point injections to remove muscle spasms. In addition, your back pain treatment Manhattan specialist might recommend a great physical therapist to help you with the stretching exercises. Other types of therapies that might improve your back are chiropractic care and acupuncture. These are done by someone with specific training and knowledge.
A great back pain doctor Manhattan can recommend the best therapists. While most upper back issues resolve in one to two weeks time, with just one treatment, you may need another session to end severe discomfort. So, avoid all things that could worsen your current injury or cause a new one. Even if you must resume work, don’t rush things so as to keep your recovery easier.
What exams are done to detect the cause of upper back pain?
Note that upper back pain can disappear without treatment and other times it can become so severe that you are unable to do anything. So if your pain extends beyond seven days, make an appointment with an excellent back pain treatment Manhattan doctor. During your visit, your specialist will have some questions for you as well as some medical tests to perform. Thus, we would like to advise you to answer all the questions truthfully and fully to make your diagnosis thorough and reliable.
Remember that your diagnosis will allow our back pain doctor Manhattan clinic to come up with a perfect treatment plan. There will be these tests:
- A physical exam – When doing this test, the pain management Manhattan expert will check your posture, physical condition and how perfectly and far your given back joints can move (range of motion). And as he or she does this exam, they will note if any motion causes you discomfort. As well as this, the selected back pain doctor Manhattan will feel your muscle spasms, upper spine curvature and alignment and tenderness to touch.
- X-ray – In case your back doctor thinks that there might be a mechanical issue in your thoracic spinal area, he or she might do an X-ray to view your spinal bones status, vertebral fractures or a disease like osteoarthritis.
- A CAT scan or CT scan – This can be done to show a clearer current condition of your joints and bones.
- MRI test – If your back pain treatment Manhattan physician suspects a nerve issue, he or she might perform an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) test. An MRI apparatus produces extremely clear and comprehensive images of the upper back discs and other components
- A neurological exam – This one tests your muscle strength, reflexes, how your pain spreads from the upper back to other parts of your body and any other nerve change. If your spinal cord nerves are damaged or affected in a way, your back pain doctor Manhattan will decide the best solution.
The aforesaid tests are the most important when there is need to investigate the true cause of the upper back pain. All the same, back doctors are sometimes forced by given situations to perform other different tests. For instance, when they want to know if you have osteoporosis, a possible cause of thoracic pain, they will carry out a bone mineral density test– a BMD test. This disease makes your bones weaker and lighter because they lose their density.
And after carrying out their tests and exams, back pain specialists are able to produce an accurate diagnosis. Next, the preferred back pain doctor Manhattan private clinic will design a treatment program that can suit your problem. In this program, the specialist might recommend drugs and injections that will end your pain. However, the underlying cause of your thoracic spinal pain will not be eliminated.
Once you get these shots and medications, pain will end and you will get back to work and be comfortable enough to endure the real treatment for your back problem. If injections are recommended, it is normally because drugs aren’t adequately helping. Injections use extremely powerful medications and you need to be well prepared to receive them.
Prescriptions are stronger than NSAIDs for pain and inflammation removal. They might include narcotics or opioids, anti-depressants and muscle relaxants. Narcotics are strong medicines that are only prescribed in the most serious cases and under a doctor’s supervision. They sort of convince your brain that your body isn’t hurting so much. You can receive long-acting or short-acting narcotic drugs. The antidepressants block the pain signals while travelling to the brain, as well as help our bodies release a natural pain reliever (endorphin). A muscle relaxant drug is only prescribed if one’s upper back discomfort is causing muscle spasms.
To make sure that drugs do the work they are designed for, ensure that you properly follow the instructions of your back pain doctor Manhattan. If using other drugs, tell the back pain physician so that he or she can avoid drug interactions and harmful side effects.
Upper Back Injections
The most common type of thoracic spine injection is the epidural steroid one. It is inserted in the gap surrounding the spinal membrane and nerve roots. They can stop radicular pain that travels to the chest and arms. It normally occurs when there is a pinched nerve root in an epidural space. After an epidural steroid injection is given, the drug will stop the nerve root’s inflammation. As this injection must target the inflamed nerve root, it must be administered by a well-trained pain management Manhattan therapist like Dr. Nguyen.
About two or three injections are enough to end pain. Besides epidural injections, your back pain treatment Manhattan consultant might suggest a facet joint injection that will target your facet joint in the spine (it allows us to move and stay stable). If this facet joint is inflamed, pain is the likely side effect.
What if your back pain doctor Manhattan clinic picks surgery?
Surgery can be a reality if all the other upper back treatments fail to help you. It is usually select last as it has several side effects than other treatments. Surgery is needed by only five percent of backache victims. So you are likely to recover via non-surgical cures like most patients. If you feel progressive neurological sensations such s tingling, weakness and numbness, your back pain Manhattan expert might decide to operate on your immediately. Second, if you have balance issues and you cannot walk, surgery might be recommended right away.
Surgery of the back can vary based on the cause of your pain. If your specialist must remove a tissue that is compressing a nerve root, then a decompression surgical procedure will be done. The procedure is done along with a stabilization surgery known as fusion– controls movement. Decompresson surgery is sub-divided into other procedures: discectomy, vertebrectomy, laminotomy, foraminotomy and laminectomy among others. It is your back pain treatment Manhattan clinic that will decide the type of thoracic spine surgery you will have.
Last word
Whether your upper back pain will be terminated via non-surgical or surgical methods, your most important goal is to ensure that it will not attack you again in the near future. All you need is to adopt new techniques such as practicing good posture, exercising regularly, keeping your weight down, quitting smoking, lifting loads safely and avoiding stressing your spine all the times.