How a spinal cord stimulator works
Pain happens when your nerves detect tissue damage in your body. From there, they fire off messages to your spinal cord and your brain. This entire process all happens within a microsecond and it’s how your body registers pain.
A spinal cord stimulator works by causing a disturbance in this cycle of communication so that the pain signals don’t register in your brain. Spinal cord stimulators don’t work by healing the root cause of pain, but by changing the way your brain registers pain. Instead of feeling chronic pain, you might feel fluttering, tingling, or nothing at all.
When we implant the stimulator, we place electrical wires on specific nerves in your back. These wires are attached to a battery pack that’s also implanted in your back. You can adjust the level of stimulation with a remote control that also turns the device on and off.