Pain Doctors Reveal the Top Treatments for Back Pain
Dec 21, 2019
Oh, the weather outside is… messy. Slushy sidewalks, cars coated in a fresh blanket of snow, and driveways that become clogged every time a plow comes past. As you get ready to leave your house, you know that you need to leave extra time to shovel out the end of your driveway. You grab your hat, gloves, and trusty shovel to get working on the neverending mountain of snow. After getting halfway through the pile, your knees buckle and your back stiffens. Trying to lift the shovel again has you wincing in pain and quickly returning to the house. You text a friend to ask, “Do you still have a plow on your truck?”
What just happened to your poor back? Back pain can be caused by an acute injury, or through repetitive motions such as shoveling. At Pain Treatment Specialists, our Harvard trained pain doctors are trained to diagnose and create treatments for back pain. Back pain treatments can include alternative treatments such as pain management, physical therapy, exercise programs, ablations, and injections. Our expert team wants patients to find relief with minimally-invasive treatments and without relying on muscle relaxants, narcotics, or surgery. When you’re ready to explore treatments for back pain, our board-certified pain doctors are ready to get you back to shoveling your driveway as quickly as possible.
Top Back Pain Treatments to Find Relief for Pain Management
If you were to research the best treatments for back pain on spinehealth.com or another reputable medical website, you’ll see that pain management is key when dealing with chronic back pain. While anti-inflammatory drugs work as a short-term solution, they don’t address the underlying problem of chronic back pain. Muscle relaxants and other addictive narcotics are problematic because they can create a dependence on pills. Surgery is also not a way to find relief, since there’s no guarantee that it won’t make your pain worse, or even require more surgeries. At Pain Treatment Specialists, our expert team of top pain doctors are specialized in the latest treatments for back pain. Here are some of the treatments for back pain utilized at our clinics:
- COOLIEF SI Joint Cooled RF: Using energy to heal your back? How high-tech is that! COOLIEF is a cutting-edge pain management treatment for back pain that uses a small current of radiofrequency energy. This radiofrequency energy is used to deactivate the nerves that are causing your back pain. COOLIEF is a targeted treatment for back pain that focuses on your specific back pain issues.
- Lumbar Radiofrequency Ablation: Another treatment for back pain that uses heat energy is lumbar radiofrequency ablation. This powerful back pain treatment relies on heat energy to precisely deliver pain relief to nerve endings in your lower back that are causing your back pain. Patients often find relief from back pain for up to one year after receiving lumbar radiofrequency ablation.
- Lumbar Facet Injection: Also known as a lumbar facet joint nerve block, this back pain treatment uses a local anesthetic to provide pain relief. During a lumbar facet injection, the local anesthetic is injected around the nerves of small joints located along the sides of each vertebra. The result? Patients who experience lower back pain due to arthritis report a major improvement in their muscle spasms and pain levels.
- Lumbar Epidural: This treatment for back pain is also a minimally-invasive pain management technique. A lumbar epidural is a steroid-based injection delivered to the epidural space, which relieves pain caused by herniated discs or spinal stenosis.
Don’t rely solely on anti-inflammatory drugs to find relief from chronic back pain. Contact a pain doctor for professional treatment for back pain to get to the source of your back pain issues.
Common Back Pain Causes
Before you discuss treatment for back pain with your pain doctor, you will have a discussion about your pain symptoms and pain levels. Your pain doctor will review common back pain causes, and what type of back pain you are experiencing.
As we age, our back goes through tremendous wear and tear. This can result in degenerative disc disease, which causes back pain and a gradual loss of mobility. The cause of degenerative disc disease is the loss of fluid contained in the disc. At first, degenerative disc disease may feel like lower back pain, but if left untreated can result in herniated discs or ruptured discs. If you feel a “pins and needles” sensation in your legs, you might be experiencing degenerative disc disease.
A herniated disc feels like lower back pain or neck pain. Also known as a bulging disc or ruptured disc, a herniated disc occurs when the jelly-like center of your spinal disc pushes through a crack in the tougher exterior. This may irritate a nearby nerve, which results in pain or numbness in your arm or leg.
Spina stenosis occurs when there’s a narrowing of the spinal canal that results in the pressure on the spinal cord or nerve roots. Pain is typically felt when bending forward, but can become severe enough to cause loss of bladder or bowel control.
A back muscle strain occurs when you’ve overworked or overused muscles while shoveling that lousy snow, painting your living room, or swinging a golf club. Your muscles become sore, stretched, and strained because of repetitive motions that you might not complete on a daily basis.
While you might not be eager to get back to shoveling snow, you don’t want to be stuck on your couch all winter with chronic back pain. Contact the team of pain experts at Pain Treatment Specialists to see how our treatments for back pain can get you back into your hat and gloves and ready to tackle the next snowstorm.
Meet our
Board Certified Team
Director of Pain Management | Double Board Certified
Pain Management
Anesthesiology
Harvard Medical School
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Massachusetts General Hospital
Dr. George Hanna is a nationally recognized pain management specialist and double Board Certified in anesthesiology and pain management medicine.
Dr. Hanna is currently available at Pain Treatment Specialists in Manhattan and Clifton, NJ.
TRIPLE Board CERTIFIED | NEW YORK & NEW JERSEY pain specialist
Pain Management
Venous Medicine
Aesthetics
Harvard Medical School
Brigham & Women’s Hospital
Dr. Michael Nguyen is world renowned in Pain Medicine. Dr. Michael completed his residency and advanced Pain fellowship training at Harvard Medical School. During his tenure at Harvard, Dr. Michael was awarded the “Mentor of the Year” and also “Teacher of the Year” award. After graduating, Dr. Michael taught for two years at Harvard – training new graduates on the latest modern advances in interventional pain management for multiple pain ailments.
Meet our Board Certified team
George
Hanna MD
Director of Pain Management
Harvard Medical School
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Michael
Nguyen MD
Harvard Medical SChool
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