Living with a chronic pain condition can severely impact your mental health as well as limit your physical abilities to lead a normal life. If you have chronic pain, the expert doctors at Restorative Physical Medicine in Livonia and Novi, Michigan, can help. They provide a comprehensive range of effective treatments for chronic pain that can restore function and relieve your discomfort. Call Restorative Physical Medicine today or schedule an appointment using the online booking form.
What is chronic pain?
Chronic pain is any type of pain that continues for months or years, causing long-term suffering and disability.
Acute pain is a vital survival mechanism, warning you of a threat to your body, such as getting too close to an open flame. Pain also tells you when your body is injured or there’s something wrong with you.
Without the discomfort of pain, you might not know when to act to prevent damage to your tissues or treat wounds and illnesses. As unpleasant as it is, acute pain helps to signal if something is wrong. Chronic pain, on the other hand, lasts far beyond a useful function.
What causes chronic pain?
There are numerous causes of chronic pain. Long-term diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and degenerative conditions like osteoarthritis cause chronic, incurable pain in the joints, for instance.
Long-term back and neck injuries and other forms of tissue damage that don’t heal properly are also common causes of chronic pain.
Headaches and migraines can lead to chronic or recurring pain, and nerve damage or malfunction (neuropathy) is a common cause of chronic pain. In many cases, nerves transmit pain messages to your brain even when there’s been no damage to your tissues.
Some forms of chronic pain, like cancer pain, recede when the condition is in remission. However, many others can be lifelong problems. Fortunately, the team at Restorative Physical Medicine can help with a range of effective interventions for chronic pain.
What noninvasive treatments are available for chronic pain?
Noninvasive therapies form the basis of most chronic pain treatment plans. Every patient has unique needs and therefore receives an individualized care plan, but noninvasive treatments could include:
- Physical therapy
- Occupational therapy
- Massage
- Manual manipulation
- Prosthetics and orthotics
- Acupuncture
- Medication
- Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS)
These conservative physical medicine treatments are effective in reducing pain and improving function for many types of chronic pain. However, if your pain isn’t improving after receiving these types of treatments, your doctor provides a range of advanced interventions.
What other treatments are available for chronic pain?
There’s an extensive selection of the most up-to-date treatments for chronic pain available at Restorative Physical Medicine. These include:
- Trigger point injections
- Epidural injections
- Peripheral nerve blocks
- Radiofrequency ablation
- Rhizotomy
- Joint injections
- Natural injectables (Traumeel® or Spascupreel®)
- Prolotherapy
- Stem cell therapy
- PRP (platelet-rich plasma) therapy
- Botulinum toxin injections
- Spinal cord stimulation
- Dorsal root ganglion (DRG) stimulation
- Intrathecal pain pumps
Your doctor can also carry out minimally invasive procedures such as kyphoplasty, endoscopic discectomy, and minimally invasive lumbar decompression (MILD).
If you’re struggling with chronic pain, call Restorative Physical Medicine today or book an appointment using the online form.
