The Advantages of Seeking Professional Back Pain Treatment
If you have back pain, seeing a doctor as soon as possible is essential. A good doctor can provide you with safe and effective treatment options. Standard care for back pain includes a combination of rest, stretching, heat and medications. It may also include osteopathic manipulation, chiropractic adjustment or massage therapy.
Experience
Back pain is one of the most common reasons people visit a doctor. Typically, it develops due to an injury or is caused by poor posture or a chronic condition like arthritis. Getting to the root of your back pain requires a thorough assessment. This starts with the initial consultation with your specialist.
The back expert may ask questions about how your pain started and varies throughout the day. They might also ask you to move around in different positions or apply pressure to certain body areas. This is known as manual therapy, a form of physical therapy that can help with back pain. This helps reduce the need for invasive surgery, which can have negative side effects.
Personalized Treatment
Back pain is one of the most common reasons people see a doctor. But knowing what treatment works best for each person can be challenging. Most doctors recommend a combination of rest, home care and prescription pain relievers.
Recent clinical guidelines have accelerated the movement away from medicalized back pain management. Still, health-service funding arrangements often discourage the less-is-more approach that suits many cases of uncomplicated back pain.
Fee-for-service systems provide incentives for activity and volume, which can inadvertently lead to more unnecessary treatments such as lumbar spinal injections or spine surgery.
The goal of personalized medicine is to tailor treatment to each patient’s specific needs based on their genetic makeup and response to treatment. This can improve diagnosis, risk assessment and disease management.
Access to a Wide Range of Treatment Options
When you visit a clinic for back pain evaluation, you’ll likely see a healthcare provider specializing in medical spine conditions and orthopedics (the bones and joints). The back pain treatment Orange Park FL healthcare provider will ask about your symptoms and examine your back, legs and arms.
They will also do lab and imaging tests. The healthcare provider may prescribe medications depending on your symptoms and how long you’ve had them. These include antidepressants such as duloxetine (Cymbalta) and amitriptyline, which have been shown to reduce chronic pain.
Cortisone injections, which reduce inflammation around nerve roots in the spinal cord, can also help relieve back pain. Physical therapy can ease stiffness, strengthen back and abdominal muscles and improve posture. It can also help you quickly return to regular or modified job duties.
Cost-Effective Treatment
Back pain is one of the most common reasons people visit their doctor. But the good news is that many patients can manage their pain with over-the-counter pain relievers, heat therapy and exercise.
Studies show that patients with uncomplicated back pain who receive a referral for physical therapy instead of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have better outcomes and are more likely to stick to treatment plans than those who begin with an MRI. Additionally, the costs of MRI are much higher over time.
This shift away from medicalized management of low back pain is reflected in clinical guidelines. However, it will take strong governance at all health system levels to ensure that patients and clinicians are adequately informed about non-medical back pain treatment options.
Safety
Nearly everyone gets back pain at some point, making it the most common reason people see a doctor. Getting help early on is important to prevent your back pain from worsening and affecting your daily life. When you go to a clinic, they’ll assess how much you can move before your back starts hurting and what kind of pain you have.
They’ll also ask about your other health problems and do a physical examination. A physical exam can reveal a lot about your spine. For example, your back specialist may look for a specific reflex or strength weakness that can signal the root cause of your pain. They might also use a technique called manipulation to reposition your spine.
