One of the biggest frustrations that people with chronic pain experience is being prescribed medication after medication without a doctor every addressing why they are in pain in the first place. Chronic pain can the result of a variety of causes. Some people experience debilitating pain from a past injury. Other people suffer after a botched medical procedure. Still others endure discomfort due to an illness. Because the pain originates from different sources and affect individuals differently, treatment for pain needs to be diverse as well. Prescribing pill after pill doesn’t solve the problem and often creates new ones. Thankfully, with the increased attention, the quality, compassion, and effectiveness of New Jersey pain management doctors has improved as well. Alternative and less invasive treatments are becoming more popular. In addition, other avenues of pain management are also being explored.
Medication Does Work
We’re not here to say medication doesn’t work. We fully understand and acknowledge that proper medications, prescribed at the appropriate times, to the appropriate patient, work. However, we also aren’t the first to say that medications are over-prescribed at an alarming rate. Instead of treating the cause, we cover up the problem too often. For pains such as sprains or strains, rest and anti-inflammatories may be enough. Peaople very effectively use aspirin to relieve the pain from a headache. For chronic pain, however, medication often is not enough.
New Jersey Pain Management Addresses the Problem
Medication does a great job of treating symptoms, but true pain management needs to address the root of the problem. Chronic pain is often a result of a chronic problem. Until the doctor addresses that issue, the pain will never cease. Rather than using medication constantly to manage pain, the best New Jersey pain management doctors are using more and more treatments and procedures to attempt to relieve the discomfort on a long-term basis.
Where Ibuprofen does a fine job at relieving slight back pain, chronic back pain resulting from spinal stenosis is better treated with the mild® procedure. Without addressing the problem, which in this case would be spinal compression, the pain will never fully go away. By relieving the pressure with this out-patient procedure, patients often experience immediate relief.
When permanent relief is not a possibility, long-term alleviation is the goal. Many pain doctors in New Jersey use steroid injections and nerve blocks to help patients. These types of treatments often affect the pain signal to the brain. In other treatments, injections of medications like ibuprofen used in affected areas. Medications are often much more effective when used in this way rather than as an oral pill.
Regenerative Medicine is Popular with New Jersey Pain Management
In recent years, regenerative medicine is receiving more and more attention. This includes treatments like stem cell therapy, tissue engineering, and immunomodulation therapy. In the pain management arena, stem cell therapy is very popular. This procedure uses a fluoroscope to aspirate stem cells from the patient’s iliac crest. Next, those cells are injected into the painful area. The result is hopefully an increase in healing, regeneration, and, therefore, pain relief. One New Jersey pain management doctor that is using these treatments effectively is Progressive Pain Management. They focus on interventional and chronic pain management. Their patients often speak of how compassionate and individualized the care they receive is. It is this attention that they pay to their patients that sets them above many other offices. By really listening to the patients, the doctor can more effectively treat their pain.
New Jersey Pain Management is Changing
Science and medicine are constantly making improvements and advancements. Every step forward means better care for patients. We found that the best results in pain control came from an assortment of treatments. Often it isn’t medication, surgery, or alternative treatments alone that work. However, the best New Jersey pain management doctors use a mix of all of them to treat their patients. When doctors listen, patients get results.