Have you been experiencing chronic, prolonged back pain? Is it increasingly difficult to continue doing the activities you love – exercising, sports, or playing with your kids? You are definitely not alone. As many as 20% of adults have severe pain that warrants pain management.
Luckily, you don’t have to live with chronic back pain. Dr. John S. Michels, MD, a pain management specialist at Interventional Spine & Pain in Dallas, Texas, is an expert when it comes to back pain relief. A physical assessment of your symptoms can diagnose the cause of your discomfort, and get you started on a path to feeling better.
Whether it’s from injury, prior surgery, or chronic degeneration of the spine, lower back pain is one of the most common pain complaints.
Conditions, such as herniated discs, bone spurs, spinal stenosis, and osteoarthritis can cause significant pain. Whenever there are compressed spinal nerves and inflammation, your back will probably hurt.
Dr. Michels uses multiple therapies to heal lower back pain. Usually, low back pain resolves with conservative therapies like ice, heat, stretching, over the counter pain medications, and physical therapy.
However, if your lower back pain persists after therapy, you may be recommended for different treatments that target pain-signaling nerves, including:
This procedure involves steroid injections into the area surrounding your spinal cord, targeting inflamed nerves.
Dr. Michels injects both steroids and an anesthetic near the spinal nerves of the facet joints of the spine. If the medication only provides temporary relief, these nerves can be ablated with rhizotomies providing long term relief.
This procedure involves implanting small electrodes near the spinal cord which produce mild electrical impulses to the part of your spine where the pain is located, blocking the nerve signals that tell your brain your back is hurting.
If your back pain is caused by mild to moderate spinal stenosis, Dr. Michels may recommend this minimally invasive type of surgery that implants a decompression system between your two vertebra to alleviate pressure on your spinal nerves.
If your lower back pain is interfering with your quality of life, don’t wait – reach out to a pain doctor and schedule a pain management plan today. You can reach Dr. Michels at 214-380-5724, or schedule an appointment online. We look forward to hearing from you.
