Who is a pain management specialist?
A pain management specialist is a certified doctor who concentrates on comprehending the complex nature of pain and applies various strategies to treat it. They use the latest scientific and medical developments to ease the pain. They also use acupuncture, physical therapy, and modern non-invasive pain management techniques to treat various types of neuropathy.
Education and training of pain management specialists
To become a pain management specialist, one must complete four years of medical school. Doctors must then complete a residency in any of the two specialties: physical medicine and rehabilitation or anesthesiology. After residency training, they must finish one year of fellowship in pain medicine.
After fellowship, qualified doctors must clear the certification examination conducted by any of the three associations: the American Board of Anesthesiology, the American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, or the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology to become board-certified pain management specialists.
What do pain management specialists do?
The primary role of pain management specialists is to detect the specific cause of pain and its underlying factors. For instance, various conditions can cause back pain, such as a herniated disc, arthritis, or poor body posture.
After a thorough diagnosis, pain specialists utilize their training and research to prescribe the most suitable therapy for your condition. They often conduct studies and trials on patients who fail to respond to conventional treatments. It helps them develop innovative treatment approaches tailored to each patient's needs and ensures complete recovery.
Pain specialists may utilize various nonsurgical interventional treatments in combination with complementary therapies to avoid the need for surgery and to reduce dependence on medicines. These include yoga, exercise, dietary changes, meditation, chiropractic care, and weight loss regimens.
Pain management doctors may prescribe painkiller medicines like nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), antidepressants, or muscle relaxants. Depending on the severity of the disorder, they may even suggest nerve blocks, epidural steroid injections, radiofrequency ablation, neuromodulation, joint injections, or spinal cord stimulation. They may recommend surgery as the last treatment option if all of the above methods fail to alleviate pain.
Pain management doctors also coordinate treatment with multiple doctors and specialists during treatment. They ensure continuity of care for patients with mental or physical disorders. They advocate for the patient and ensure the patient receives proper care that helps relieve their pain symptoms.
Why visit a pain management specialist near you?
You should see a pain management doctor if you have been in pain for a long time or if a particular motion causes it. In some cases, it may gradually subside on its own. However, if it does not improve or starts to spread throughout a limb of your body, you should consider professional help.
Sometimes, pain can prevent you from getting enough sleep, negatively impacting your health. You may also experience severe pain and believe surgery is your only option for relief or using medication to manage pain. However, it will be best not to rely solely on it because it may have side effects. Therefore, you can refer to a pain management specialist if you want to stop taking prescription pain relievers and switch to pain-free and drug-free alternatives.
What causes pain?
Tissue and nerve damage are the most prominent causes of pain. These types of pain could result from bone, soft tissue, or organ injury. Pain may also result from conditions like cancer.
In the case of tissue damage, you might experience an aching, a sharp stabbing, or a throbbing pain. This pain can be continuous or intermittent. When you move or laugh, the discomfort could become more severe. Sometimes, deep breathing can also make the pain worse.
Tissue injury can lead to acute or chronic pain. The pain is sharp in the case of soft tissue damage, frequently caused by sports injuries like a turf toe or sprained ankle. Chronic pain is typically due to conditions like arthritis or recurrent headaches. Additionally, some medical procedures, like radiation therapy for cancer, can harm the tissue and result in pain.
Damage to the nerves, which transport signals to and from the brain, affects how these signals travel and, therefore, causes pain signals to malfunction. The origin of this type of pain may be any region of the central nervous system (CNS), including the brain and spinal cord, or the peripheral nervous system (PNS).
Neuropathic pain, or pain from damaged nerves, gives a burning or prickling sensation. Some compare it to an electrical jolt. Others claim it feels like stabbing or like poking of pins and needles. People with nerve injuries are generally sensitive to touch and temperature. In extreme cases, a touch, such as the skin brushing against a bed sheet, could trigger severe pain. Without heat, one may feel one's hand or body part burning.
Nerve damage could result from injuries, a stroke, an HIV infection, or illnesses like diabetes. Nerve damage may also result from some chemotherapy medications.
What procedures does a pain management specialist perform?
A pain management specialist helps control pain with different procedures. Some of the most common ones performed by them are:
It can assist in easing chronic leg and lower back pain caused by herniated discs, spinal stenosis, facet joint discomfort, sciatica, and other back issues. When injected, the steroid medication moves up and down the spinal cord, coating the nerve roots near the injection site.
- Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy
It reduces pain and speeds up the healing of soft tissue injuries. A pain management specialist uses a centrifuge to remove the platelets from a small amount of blood. Using ultrasound scans as their guide, they inject this substance into the wounded tendon or cartilage.
Vagal nerve stimulation treats certain conditions, most commonly epilepsy (which causes seizures), by delivering a mild electrical shock to the vagus nerve using a small device similar to a pacemaker.
They aid in easing pain caused by various conditions, including osteoarthritis. A pain management specialist can directly inject drugs into the area of pain using ultrasounds or X-rays to pinpoint the exact location.
It decreases inflammation caused by joint degeneration and arthritis. A specialist will use it if physical therapy or other treatments have not relieved your pain since it enables them to diagnose and locate the source of the pain.
It is a procedure to fuse two or more spinal bones so that they eventually develop into a single, solid bone. It relieves leg and back pain by preventing abnormal and painful movement.
Lumbar fusion is joining two or more small vertebrae that no longer rub against one another but instead function as a single unit. It may help lessen or eliminate back discomfort caused by herniated discs.
What are the common non-medicinal treatments available to manage pain?
It is better to try medicine-free remedies first, as pain relievers come with several risks and adverse effects. Additionally, engaging in these treatments may enable you to take less medication if needed. Many non-medicine therapies can help with the pain. Some commonly known include:
- Massage therapy allows you to relax and relieve tension and pain. It involves kneading, rubbing, tapping, and stroking the body's soft tissues.
- Relaxation therapy helps ease stress and muscular tension, regulate blood pressure, and manage pain. Pain specialists provide relaxation therapy by tensing and relaxing muscles all over the body.
- Physical therapy can help with pain management, restoration, and muscle strengthening. Its techniques include heat, ice, exercise, massage, and manipulation.
- Psychotherapy treats mental and behavioral illnesses using techniques like counseling, listening, and talking. Also known as talk therapy, it can also benefit those who have pain, particularly chronic pain.
- Acupuncture involves stimulating particular points in the body. Its most typical technique involves passing fine needles through the skin. Other methods include applying heat or pressure and electrical stimulation.
How do pain medicines work?
Here are the different pain medicines and how they work to relieve pain:
Local anesthetics include products available over the counter and applied to the skin. For instance, the medicine is rubbed over the skin of the sore muscle. Local anesthetics get quickly absorbed by the skin and reach the bloodstream. Therefore, they begin work quickly to relieve muscle pain.
Doctors may prescribe two types of anti-seizure medicines for nerve pain. These include pregabalin (Lyrica) and gabapentin (Graslie). These medicines reduce the production of excitatory neurotransmitters (proteins) that are associated with nerve pain.
Anti-seizure medicines take longer to show results than NSAIDs and opioids. It may take days or weeks before a person experiences pain relief. Depending on the person's response to the medications, the doctor may adjust the doses after a week.
- Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)
NSAIDs block cyclooxygenase, a protein that produces prostaglandins, a chemical associated with pain and inflammation. Therefore, by blocking the production of cyclooxygenase, NSAIDs help treat pain due to inflammation.
NSAIDs are of different types. These include oral capsules, intravenous (IV) injections, rectal suppositories, tablets, and suspensions. IV injections help relieve pain within seconds, whereas oral capsules take about 30 to 60 minutes to provide relief as they need to move through the digestive tract and get absorbed by the bloodstream.
Opioids activate the "mu receptors" found in the nervous system. The medicine blocks pain signals from reaching the nervous system, thus relieving pain. Opioid IV injections can provide relief in about 5 minutes. Intramuscular injections could take about 20 minutes to start working, whereas oral medicines take about 30 minutes to show results.
There are other forms of opioid medications, such as the intranasal form, which is administered through the nose and starts working in 10 minutes. The nebulizer form, which the patient inhales, starts working immediately.
- Antidepressant medications
Antidepressant medications can also help relieve nerve pain. They work on neurotransmitters called noradrenaline and serotonin, which determine the amount of pain a person feels. The medicines help block the neurotransmitters and suppress the pain signals from reaching the brain. Antidepressant medications may take weeks to show any results. The doctor suggests appropriate doses depending on the diagnosis.
How do you find top-rated pain management specialists near you in Austin, TX?
Sometimes, you may be unable to engage in activities you enjoy because of pain or have difficulties functioning in your day-to-day life due to discomfort and aches. Enhancing quality of life requires effective pain management, making finding a good pain management specialist essential. However, locating the best one may take a lot of work, thus delaying your visit. Zocdoc aims to match patients with Austin's best pain management specialists.
On Zocdoc, you can search for the provider based on symptoms, location, and date. Additionally, you can refine your search criteria to locate them based on gender, language, whether or not they treat children, and hospital affiliations. Every provider has a profile that includes their qualifications, affiliations, honors, certifications, experience, areas of specialization, licensure, and other details.
If you want to find a provider who accepts your insurance, add your insurance information (your insurance provider and plan) on the Zocdoc search. It will help you see in-network providers who accept your plan. You can find accurate results from in-network pain management specialists. Check out Zocdoc's patient help center for more information and solutions related to insurance.
Zocdoc also displays verified reviews and ratings of previous patients that you can read to locate the top-rated pain management specialist near you. After making an informed decision, you can book virtual and in-person appointments. All bookings with Zocdoc are easy, cost-free, and safe!
Statistics of conditions treated by pain management specialists in Texas
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, 2022, as published on the America's Health Rankings website, nearly 22.2% of Texas adults reported having arthritis in 2022. Around 7.9% were between 18 and 44 years old, almost 27.4% were between 45 and 64, and nearly 51.7% were 65 and older.
The Texas Stroke System of Care Report 2020 from the Texas Department of State Health Services states that in 2017, stroke was the third leading cause of death among Texans of all ages, accounting for around 42.3 deaths per 100,000 people. The prevalence of stroke among adults over the age of 18 was 3.7% in 2019. Additionally, in 2018, for every 10,000 people, approximately 25 hospitalizations resulted from a stroke.
Stroke severity and treatment affect health outcomes and patient recovery. Post-stroke rehabilitation is crucial in restoring the survivor's functionality in terms of speech, language, and physical ability. A pain management specialist can help during this stage by alleviating post-stroke pain. They can also treat arthritis, such as osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. They may administer viscosupplementation, a lubricating fluid injection into joints to relieve arthritis pain.
Sources
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National Library of Medicine
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Texas Department of State Health Services
WebMD
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Medical News Today
