If you have chronic pain, visiting a pain management clinic can help you receive comprehensive care to boost your well-being. Physicians in chronic pain clinics will tailor their treatments to offer you lasting relief. They will help you come up with a plan that suits your particular needs and preferences. Before choosing a clinic for pain treatment, ask relevant questions to gauge its ability to address your specific issue. Here are some questions you should ask a clinic for treating and managing pain:
Which Conditions Do You Treat?
Asking a pain management clinic about the conditions it treats can help you know if it has adequate experience in addressing your specific issue. Clinics for managing pain have the ability to treat several chronic pain-causing conditions, including spinal stenosis, facet joint syndrome, vertebrogenic pain, and herniated discs. Spinal stenosis is a neurological disorder that causes the spaces in the spinal column to become narrower.
When the condition goes untreated for a long time, the spinal cord nerves sustain additional pressure, resulting in chronic back pain. Facet joint syndrome happens when the vertebral joints become stiff because of arthritis, while heterogenic pain happens when the cartilage separating spinal discs gets torn. Other conditions causing chronic pain include spondylitis, annular tear, neuropathy, and spinal osteoarthritis. A pain clinic can help you manage all the symptoms.
What Are Your Pain Services?
Asking about the types of pain services the clinic offers also teaches you about its treatment approaches. These may include opioid and non-opioid treatments. Epidural steroid injections are some of the pain management services your clinic might offer. This helps alleviate inflammation in the spinal canal by numbing the epidural nerves affected by conditions like joint cysts.
Clinics for treating chronic pain may also use radiofrequency ablation, a pain service that uses radiofrequency waves to numb spinal nerves. The waves alter the normal functioning of the nerves that send pain signals to the brain. Pain management centers also offer peripheral nerve stimulation, which uses electrical impulses to stop damaged nerves from sending pain signals. Some other forms of pain management services to inquire about include:
- Spinal cord stimulator
- Facet injections
- Superion
- Dorsal Root Ganglion (DRG) stimulation
How Can I Prepare For My First Visit?
Inquiring about preparation for your first visit allows you to gather the necessary documents for a streamlined experience. When you ask about preparation for your first visit to the clinic, you can understand the treatment process and develop realistic expectations. Gathering information related to your health and medical history can help you prepare for your first appointment with the clinic. The information should include your past pain medications, surgeries, conditions, and accidents, as well as family history. You should also detail the symptoms you’re experiencing to allow the physician to diagnose your condition.
Book an Appointment With a Pain Management Clinic
If you have acute pain-causing conditions, visiting a pain management professional can help you get an accurate diagnosis and individualized treatment plans. When you visit a specialist, you undergo diagnostic tests like bloodwork, X-rays, and CT scans for accurate results. Some symptoms that show the need to visit the clinic include sleep difficulty and reliance on pain medication. Schedule an appointment with a reputable pain management clinic today for the highest-quality treatments.
