Pain Management

Pain Management

When you’re in constant pain, your entire life changes. Day-to-day tasks that used to be simple are now incredibly difficult, activities you once loved now bring nothing but misery, and your emotions and mental health are all over the place due to the chronic pain. In case you are unsure as to whether you are suffering from chronic pain, you should keep in mind that, for it to be chronic, it needs to have persisted for 6 months or more. Your pain does not have to be constant, either. For many people, intermittent pain occurs because their injury only flares up when they do certain activities. Chronic pain is more prevalent than the total number of people suffering from cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. We want you to know that you don’t have to live like this anymore. Coping does not have to be your life’s work, and relief is available for you at the hands of the pain management doctors at AICA Orthopedics.

At AICA, we aim to give our patients pain-free lives through medical advances and personalized treatment options. Our diagnostic technology is some of the most innovative in the industry, and we always endeavor to treat the root cause of your pain in order to provide long-term solutions. Whether you’re dealing with chronic back pain, debilitating joint pain, or constant headaches, we can assist you with pain management and improve your overall health and quality of life.

Advanced Pain Management Options

When you’re in severe pain or when you’ve been dealing with chronic pain for a while, we know you want a quick and effective solution. We will run diagnostic tests to determine the source of your pain, and then we will discuss pain management options with you. Our pain management doctors and physicians will order different tests and scans to assess the damage to your body before they prescribe a treatment plan to alleviate your pain.

If soft tissue damage is the cause of your frequent pain, MRI scans and CT scans can be run to confirm the exact nature of the harm you have suffered. Skeletal injuries can often cause chronic pain, and we can assess your injuries using x-rays and work to heal any breaks or fractures that are causing you pain. Nerve damage and spine problems are very common instigators to chronic pain. Electromyography and nerve conduction velocity tests will give our team an indication of the state of your nerve responses and muscle function.

We know that the less invasive the treatment option, the better. For this reason, we will begin with some noninvasive pain management options, such as minimally invasive spine surgery or physical therapy. We can inject numbing agents into painful areas, or we can do radiofrequency neuroablation, which uses heat and radio waves to essentially block pain receptors. The spinal interventions our team offers will provide lasting pain management with one simple anti-inflammatory medication injection at the site of the area in pain.

Chiropractic care and spinal decompression are also great pain management options, especially when you’re dealing with headaches, neck pain, or back pain. Proper alignment of the spine is essential to the reduction of chronic pain. Our specialists will ensure that your spine is in good shape and work with you to maintain alignment. This concept of maintenance care can prevent any number of painful recurring problems.

Medication is not our first solution, but when properly prescribed, can be an effective tool in the chronic pain management plan. Sometimes simply having pain reduced for a time can allow us to employ methods that would normally cause too much discomfort for the patient to withstand. For example, if the pain you are experiencing is severe enough that you find yourself unable to partake in regular exercise or work on your physical therapy plan, you will have a difficult time fully healing, because these components are essential to nearly every chronic pain treatment plan. Maintaining a healthy weight, participating in regular exercise, and getting adequate rest are the most basic foundation upon which all other components rest. Make sure every other facet of your physical wellness is in proper order and you will find that your chronic pain is managed much more effectively.

Many patients find success in employing non-traditional pain management techniques as well. A regimen of meditation and physiotherapy can be incredibly helpful in helping your mind to facilitate the healing process of your body.

Diagnostics and Further Treatments For Pain Management

We know that pain management is important, but we don’t want to simply cover up your symptoms and send you on your way. We want to help you find pain relief first, and then we want to seek to understand the underlying issue and treat that at the source. This will ensure that your pain doesn’t return when the pain management procedure wears off, and it will help you experience greater health and wellness in both the near and distant future.

One of the most innovative methods we have involves numbing injections for the purpose of pain relief and diagnostics. When we’ve pinpointed what we believe to be the source of your pain, we will inject a numbing solution into that area. If you feel pain relief, then not only will you feel better, but we will also know the exact area that is causing the discomfort. This is great for diagnostic purposes and can help us a great deal in determining the reason behind your pain. Once we’ve properly diagnosed the issue, we can move forward with personalized treatment plans to help you achieve greater health and a better quality of life.

To learn more about pain management options, get in touch with AICA Orthopedics in Atlanta.