If you have chronic or severe pain, it’s probably time to see a pain management doctor. However, you may be hesitant because you don’t want to get onto medication to manage your pain, maybe because you have many other medications to manage, or you want to keep medication as a last resort. Many oral pain management medications can be habit-forming, so this is a smart choice. However, are there ways to cope with pain without daily medication?
Let’s talk about the medication-free pain management treatments that many pain management doctors trust and recommend and where you can go in Florida for outstanding pain management.
Injections
Injections are a common form of pain management because they offer almost immediate pain relief that can last for months. It is a one-time delivery of medication right to the problem area. Joint injections usually contain a corticosteroid, a pain-relieving medication, an anesthetic to numb pain, or hyaluronate, which can increase lubrication in joints.
Joint Injections
Joint injections are pain management where medication is injected into an inflamed or damaged joint to relieve pain. For instance, hyaluronate is commonly injected into knee joints with osteoarthritis to help re-lubricate the joint, decreasing pain and increasing mobility. Other joint injections include the various joints of the spine, which can be responsible for different kinds of neck and back pain. These include epidural injections, where medication is injected into the space in the middle of your vertebrae where the spinal cord runs through.
Trigger Point Injections
Trigger point injections are used to relieve pain in the muscle where there are knots or trigger points. Trigger point injections usually contain a mixture of anesthetic and anti-inflammatory. The former provides instant pain relief and the latter relaxes the muscle and provides longer term pain relief.
Nerve Blocks
A nerve block is a type of injection that stops pain signals from neurons or nerve cells, so they don’t reach the brain, and you don’t register pain. Depending on the location of the injection, nerve blocks can be used to treat pain for headaches if they are injected into the nerves in the back of the head or back pain by injecting nerves in facet joints.
If the doctor is not exactly sure what is causing your pain, they may perform a selective nerve root block. This involves a set of injections to locate the source of the pain and then more injections to block pain at the source. This method is frequently used to identify and treat pain from spinal stenosis or herniated discs.
Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) Therapy
Platelets are special cells that are always circulating in your blood and collect at the site of an injury along with growth factors to start the healing process. In this therapy, your doctor will draw some of your blood and spin it down to collect only the platelets and growth factors. Then, they will inject this into the area of your body where you are experiencing pain. This can speed up the healing process in that area, which in turn can relieve pain.
Radiofrequency Ablation (RFA)
This treatment has a similar result as a nerve block but uses a different method. In RFA, radio waves are used to purposely damage the ends of nerves so that they cannot send pain signals to the brain. RFA can be used to treat pain in the neck, hip, and back, and the effects last just as long or longer than nerve blocks.
Pain Management Doctors Near Me
Overall, a pain management doctor can help you cope with your pain without habit-forming oral medication and can have other adverse side effects. Your doctor can relieve your pain with injections, platelet-rich plasma therapy, and radiofrequency ablation through interventional pain management. All these procedures can be done easily in the office and only require a few visits to get you feeling better.
At Central Florida Spine and Pain, we use each of these treatments on patients and get great results. All treatments are done by Dr. Nicholas Giordano, who is board certified by the American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and specializes in interventional pain management.
To schedule an appointment with us, call us at 321-802-5021, or fill out this form.
