When your back pain lasts for three months or longer, then it falls in the category of a chronic condition. Living with ongoing back pain can be hard, especially when it interferes with daily activities – such as work, home, and hobbies.
How are you coping with back pain that flares up or never seems to go away? Too often, patients try different treatment options through their general physicians, only to achieve subpar results. Sometimes medications can ease the pain temporarily, but it can seem disheartening to feel like your pain is never going away.
If you haven’t been able to find solutions to alleviate your chronic back pain, then it might be time to talk to a pain management specialist about potential treatment options. When traditional medicine isn’t enough, a pain management clinic can be an excellent solution for chronic back pain.
Traditional Medicine vs. Pain Management Clinics
It’s important to understand the different approaches to pain management. Typically, general practitioners don’t have the experience or education to know the underlying cause of chronic pain. Since they can’t identify the root of the problem, they focus on symptom management instead.
In this situation, it’s common for a doctor to prescribe pain medication to make it bearable for you to get through the day. Unfortunately, the pain will return when the medication wears off. So, many people find themselves dependent on medications to make it from one day to the next.
On the other hand, pain management experts take a different approach to their treatment plans. When you are working with a pain management specialist, their goal is to get to the root of the problem. They want to understand why your pain is occurring and what can be done to provide relief to the root problem.
Not only does this pain management approach provide immediate relief, but the goal is to help you feel better in the future. Addressing the root cause reduces the likelihood of the pain returning later on.
Two Types of Chronic Back Pain
There are a variety of reasons why chronic back pain can occur. Many people will experience back pain at some point in their life, but it doesn’t fall in the category of chronic pain unless the condition is long-lasting.
Some patients with chronic back pain have flare-ups, with periods in between where their back feels relatively normal. They feel great some of the time until an activity or trigger happens that causes the back pain to return.
On the other hand, some patients with chronic pain feel like their pain is never going away. No matter their daily activities or how they are sitting, standing, or lying down, the pain is always present. This pain can range from a dull ache to sharp spikes of pain – and everything in between.
No matter the frequency or severity of your chronic back pain, it can be frustrating to live with never-ending pain symptoms.
Why Do You Have Chronic Back Pain?
Often, age-related factors affect chronic back pain. But there are other factors that can influence the development of chronic back pain as well.
- Age: One of the most common reasons for chronic pain is because of the aging process. The body starts to break down over time, and the repair functions aren’t working quite as well, resulting in aches and pains that get worse with age.
- Prior Injuries: If you’ve had a back injury in the past, then there is a higher likelihood that your back pain can flare up again into a chronic condition.
- Spinal Arthritis: Another common cause of chronic back pain is arthritis in the spine. This condition causes the cartilage to be thin, resulting in more wear and tear on the bones.
- Spinal Stenosis: If the spinal canals narrow, it can lead to nerve pain, resulting in a chronic condition.
- Disc Issues: Various problems with the spinal discs can cause chronic back pain, such as bulging discs or herniated discs.
- Myofascial Pain Syndrome: Some syndromes or autoimmune conditions can result in unexplained tenderness and muscle pain.
Too often, it can be difficult to pinpoint the exact cause of your chronic back pain. Your doctor will go through different diagnostic options to evaluate your condition and determine any physical issues contributing to your pain levels.
If you can’t get an exact diagnosis, it’s still worth consulting with an experienced pain management specialist. Our team has years of experience diagnosing and treating various types of chronic pain. We invite you to reach out at your convenience to schedule a consultation to learn more about your options.
Non-Surgical Treatments for Back Pain
Just because you have chronic back pain, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to go under the knife to find relief. The truth is that some patients have back surgery only to find that they still live with chronic back pain after the surgery.
So, before you rush into surgery, it’s worth considering alternative treatment methods. A pain management clinic is an excellent resource to look at different treatment options. Our team has access to unique tools and methods to alleviate pain and help you enjoy a normal lifestyle again.
Each patient has unique concerns and underlying health issues, so we believe everyone deserves a customized treatment plan. We combine a variety of solutions to help you find relief now and in the future.
- Physical Therapy: These exercises improve core strength and range of motion. Treatments also help to retrain your posture to avoid pain issues in the future.
- Injection Treatments: Sometimes, steroid injections are used to alleviate pain and inflammation in the affected nerve. There is also the option to use nerve blocks and nerve ablations to alleviate the symptoms and rule out specific causes. Injections can alleviate the pain for a period of time, but they aren’t long-term treatments.
- Alternative Treatments: One of the benefits of visiting a pain management clinic is that you have access to many alternative options, such as electrical nerve stimulation, acupuncture, radiofrequency, laser therapy, and more. The specific treatments vary depending on the clinic that you visit.
Often, the approach is to combine multiple treatments in order to gain the ideal results. For example, injections can help with immediate pain relief, then your pain is reduced enough to move forward with physical therapy and other alternative pain treatments.
Talk to the Pain Management Specialists About Chronic Back Pain
If you are living with chronic pain, then it is time to reach out to pain management specialists for more information. Contact us at Kentuckiana Pain Specialists. We have an office in Louisville, Kentucky, and treat patients from all the surrounding areas. Learn more about your treatment options by calling our office at (502) 995-4004.