Dealing with pain is never easy. Most of the time you just keep on going, waiting for it to fade. But sometimes you need the help of a pain control professional. When your back or joint pain becomes too much to take, it can overtake your whole life. Your Jersey City orthopedics is ready to help you regain control of your life. With state-of-the-art diagnosis tools, your orthopedic surgeon can determine what the problem is with great accuracy. From there, you can begin your journey of pain management.
How Do Orthopedic Specialists Treat Pain?
There are several kinds of doctors that treat pain. Each specialty has its own field of expertise. Orthopedic surgeons treat pain issues that involve your musculoskeletal system. This includes your bones, muscles, joints, tendons, and ligaments. How your pain is treated depends largely on where it is and how severe the injury or disease is.
Back Pain
Almost every adult experiences some kind of back pain from time to time. But if your pain doesn’t go away or gets worse as time passes, you may need the services of an orthopedic surgeon.
There are many possible reasons for your back pain. It could be because of an injury or due to a degenerative disease. Among the most frequent back pain issues your orthopedic surgeon can treat are pinched nerves, pulled or torn muscles, slipped discs, disc herniation or compression, and lumbar radiculopathy.
Some kinds of back pain can be treated with physical therapy and special exercises. In other cases, the pain is not eased by physical therapy, and your physician may need to prescribe medication to manage your pain. Strides in regenerative medicine can help the body re-engineer or replace tissue that has been damaged. Your orthopedic surgeon also offers surgical solutions, though surgery is often not necessary.
Joint Pain
If you have pain in your joints, it can take over your everyday life. Joint pain makes it hard to move, twist, or bend. But you don’t have to just live with the pain anymore. Your orthopedic specialist offers specialized treatments to ease your joint pain.
Most joint pain occurs in the hips, shoulders, or knees. It could be caused by a wide variety of maladies, from issues like arthritis, bursitis, or tendonitis. Cartilage degeneration is also a painful cause, along with sprained muscles and joint infection.
If the pain is not very serious, you may find relief with OTC pain relievers or physical therapy. Alternating heat and ice on the affected area is also helpful in easing pain, in some cases.
However, if your pain does not ease within two to six weeks or gets worse, advanced methods may be needed. One treatment option is steroid injections to decrease inflammation in the joint. When injected into the joints, tendons, or bursa, these shots can be very effective in treating joint issues like tendonitis and bursitis.
Another treatment option your orthopedic surgeon uses for relieving joint pain is a peripheral nerve block. By injecting anesthetic near the appropriate nerve, you can get relief, though only temporarily.
If you are suffering from pain in Jersey City or Clifton, NJ, contact Garden State Pain Control today to discover your pain management options.