Pain is a normal part of life. Everyone has suffered from some sort of malady at some point. Most pain is temporary, and goes away quickly–this is known as acute pain. Acute pain starts suddenly and can be traced to a specific cause, like a burn or a broken bone.
Sometimes, though, pain becomes severe or lasts for several weeks, months, or even years. This type of pain is known as chronic pain and can wreak havoc on your life. There is no such thing as good pain, but there are ways to manage and treat the problem to regain quality of life.
How Acute and Chronic Pain Differ
Acute pain is pain that typically starts suddenly and goes away quickly. This type is pain tends to be relatively easy to treat. Acute pain is sharp in nature, usually resolving itself within 6 months. When the underlying cause for the pain goes away, the pain is usually gone as well. With acute pain, once gone, you can go on with your normal routine.
Chronic pain, however, is a whole different animal. This pain is long lasting, often becoming its own disease. This type persists long after the injury has healed, and can be traced to a variety of other symptoms like headaches, back pain, arthritis and others. Chronic pain can interrupt a person’s life and causes stressful physical effects.
Properly Treating Pain
Depending on the type of pain you’re dealing with,and its cause, there may be varying varying ways for it to be handled. Some injuries are temporary and can be treated with simple physical therapy. Still others are more complex and require the patient to be referred to a specialist.Both share a common factor, and that is that they can be addressed using pain management.
The goal is pain management is not always to eliminate the pain. Rather, it seeks to identify the source of the pain. Pain management looks at the type of pain, how long you’ve dealt with it, the location and if anything is aggravating it. Putting all of these factors together helps deliver a personal approach to the pain, and helping patients get back to their lives, without living with debilitating pain.
Another goal is to treat pain without using opioids, reducing the risk of dependency. Acupuncture, surgery and injections are all part of the pain management process. Physical therapy is another widely-used component. Treat your injuries and manage your pain at our Kingston physical therapy office.
You don’t have to live with pain. Call Cawley Physical Therapy today to schedule your physical therapy consultation.
