Chronic pain can steal weeks or even years from your life. It can leave you feeling frustrated and wondering if you’ll ever lead a normal life again. But don’t give up hope just yet, as there are many avenues of treatment that you might not have explored yet.
At SportsMED Orthopedic Surgery & Spine Center, our excellent team of doctors specializes in all kinds of pain management techniques. Whether you’ve had pain for years or months, we can evaluate your needs and discuss our many available treatment options.
What are alternative pain management options?
Chronic pain afflicts millions of people. If you’re among them, you’ve probably tried all kinds of home remedies and conservative treatments. And some may even have worked for a short time. However, chronic pain seems to always sneak back into your life at the most inconvenient times.
That’s where our office comes in. At SportsMED Ortho, we offer pain management techniques in a variety of forms to help you conquer the pain that’s ruling your life. Most of our treatment options are minimally invasive, which benefits you and works well with your busy lifestyle.
The following are some of the treatment options that we offer:
Injections
One of the first things we might have you try after other conservative treatments have failed are injections. We offer many types of injections, including:
- Epidural injections
- Trigger point injections
- Peripheral joint injections
- Facet joint injections
- Sacroiliac joint injections
Your doctor either gives the injection with a numbing medication such as lidocaine or pairs the lidocaine with a corticosteroid. This provides both short- and long-term relief.
Regenerative medicine
Regenerative medicine is a type of pain management treatment that uses your own blood and platelets to regenerate damaged tissues within the joints. This type of treatment is called platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy.
Your blood is spun in a centrifuge, where the whole blood is separated from the plasma. The plasma is then harvested and injected into the area that’s causing you pain.
Radiofrequency ablation
This type of treatment can help if you’re suffering from chronic pain in your neck or back. It works by using a current of electricity to cauterize the bundle of nerves that’s causing your pain. This can provide long-term relief from nerve pain.
How long you experience relief may depend on variables such as the location and severity of your pain. Some people get six months of relief, while others may get as long as a year.
Implantable pain management devices
For more serious pain conditions where other treatment options have failed, our doctors may recommend a spinal cord stimulator or pain pump implantation. Both are surgical procedures used to control chronic nerve pain.
The spinal cord stimulator is similar to a transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) unit, except the apparatus is implanted in your body. Talk to our doctors if you feel like this is a treatment that you might benefit from.
We’re likely to recommend that you undergo physical or occupational therapy along with any of the above treatments to give you the best chance at long-term relief. And just because one treatment doesn’t work for you, it doesn’t mean another one won’t be more successful.
Make sure to tell your doctor all of your symptoms so we can come up with a tailored treatment plan that’s best for you.
Conditions that we treat with alternative techniques
No matter what joint in your body is causing you pain — or whether the pain is chronic or acute — we have a solution. Some of the many conditions that we can help you find relief from are:
- Hip, shoulder, and knee pain
- Arthritis
- Peripheral neuropathy
- Spinal stenosis
- Degenerative disc disease
We also treat other spine conditions, such as herniated or bulging discs.
If you’re dealing with chronic pain and are ready to find long-term relief, call us at one of our four convenient locations in Huntsville, Madison, Athens, and Decatur, Alabama, or book an appointment online with us today.