Most pain medicine specialists treat different phases of pain, like surgery, nerve damage, road injuries, and health conditions like diabetes. They also treat pain that doesn’t have a clear cause. They suggest medications given orally or through intravenous injections.
Types of Pain
There are various types of pain, for different pain types. A pain management expert can guide you about the differences among treatment approaches:
1- Chronic Pain
Most pain vanishes with time. If your leg is broken, it gets healed. Your tooth pain, like aspirin, which manages the occasional headache, may also be reduced. They are considered acute or temporary pain.
Chronic pain is a disorder that is not eliminated on its own. It prolongs for a few months or longer, such as recurring pain, including migraines, neck pain, arthritis, back pain, and injury concussions says, Dr. Rao K Ali.
2- Acute Pain From Injury
When you fall awkwardly while playing football, you feel pain. You have a sudden cut on your finger while using the knife for chopping vegetables. Or you have a car accident. This type of pain can be managed and diagnosed easily.
Sometimes, concussions are not identified or treated appropriately, leading to nerve damage or distortion. Even pain after operations that are poorly managed can cause chronic pain. It is necessary to treat your pain so that you can avoid further complications.
3- Nociceptive Pain
Incidents leading to nociceptive pain include cuts or fractured bones. For instance, when a break in the bone occurs, signals travel via the spinal cord from the site where there is injury to the brain’s peripheral nerves. As a result, we know that something is not going well.
4. Neuropathic pain
Neuropathic pain involves damages or disorders that impact our nervous system. Sometimes, the accurate source is not known. Common examples of this type of pain are diabetic peripheral neuropathy and shingles.
Comprehensive Diagnostics and Tailored Treatment Plans
Pain physicians offer a complete set of diagnostic and pharmacological procedures. Their team utilizes the latest techniques in pain medicine to identify the source of pain and the suitable options to treat it. You undergo a complete evaluation and proper care plan. In collaboration with the patients, pain doctors just use medications and treatment approaches if they need alterations. The aim is to deliver an optimum diagnosis and a safe and effective treatment plan, says Dr Muhammad Zulqarnain.
-
Whole-Person Care
Pain management experts know how physical discomfort impacts mental health and patients’ well-being. So, the professional treatment approach may include lifestyle changes, therapies, medications, and pain management strategies.
How to Choose a Pain Specialist
Your doctor can guide you about which special doctor can treat you and provide the possible management approaches. You should be aware of a healthcare provider’s general philosophy regarding pain management and their method of treating certain ailments before selecting one. Select a doctor who:
- Completed training and expertise in treating the associated specific form of pain. Mostly, they have a pain medicine fellowship that involves training under a specialty doctor’s training.
- Has board certification, which manifests their tests passed in fields such as physical medicine, neurology, anesthesiology, or rehab
- Good listening skills
- Seems trustworthy
- Enjoys good status in respect through the medical community
- Encourages you to enquire questions
- Permits you to disagree
What Other Specialists Do We Work With?
As there is a range of pain conditions, pain physicians work in a team of other multidisciplinary members. All pain medicine specialists work to handle surgical and medical complications. Pain management is the focus of all pain management specialists. However, the relevant team includes healthcare professionals like nurses, physiotherapists, clinical psychologists, pharmacists, and occupational therapists.
What Techniques Do Pain Specialists Use?
Pain Specialists utilize a wide range of approaches, such as
-
Pharmacological
They involve analgesics like various analgesic and adjuvant medications for treating different pain types, including neuropathic, nociceptive, pain syndromes, and visceral conditions.
- Analgesia: Pain Medicine Specialists in Dallas may suggest a group of analgesics like specialist medications targeting pain due to nerve injury. However, for some individuals having chronic pain, analgesia shows minor effects, so reducing or stopping these medications is important.
- Interventional techniques: Pain physicians in Dallas may inject injections into the spine, muscles, nerves, and joints that generate temporary relief from pain under a wide pain management strategy, affecting the patient’s ability to function properly. Pain medicine specialists may also participate in training implants for pain–relieving apparatuses for specific patients to treat a small number of chronic pain disorders(like spinal cord stimulation and spinal implants of drug delivery systems).
- Physical therapy: This involves physiotherapy and occupational therapy suggested for strength and flexibility buildup, enhancement of mobility, and reduction of disability.
Psychological therapy: A variety of individuals and group members, according to support and education levels, are provided with psychological therapies. They consist of hospital-based psychological sessions. The main goal is to design a plan that reduces the effect of pain on a person’s mood, social behavior, and well-being.
