Chronic pain can bring everyday life to a standstill. In addition to the constant agony and physical limitations it brings, dealing with chronic pain can impact other aspects of your well-being as well. Chronic pain can drive you to feel isolated, misunderstood, or frustrated as you navigate the struggles of daily living.
You are not alone! As discouraging as it can be, there is hope for chronic pain patients. One of the most important steps you can take towards managing and alleviating your chronic pain is seeking professional help from a pain doctor, or what most people call a pain management specialist.
What does a pain management specialist do? What are the benefits of seeing one? And where can you find a pain doctor near you?
The Consequences of Chronic Pain
“Acute” pain is a normal sensation that alerts our bodies to a possible injury or illness and typically goes away after the condition is treated. But when a patient has experienced pain for at least 12 weeks, it’s considered “chronic.” Chronic pain can be continuous or intermittent, mild or excruciating, merely inconvenient or incapacitating, and it just won’t seem to go away — even after certain treatments.
There can be many different causes of chronic pain, which can develop even after the original injury or illness has been addressed. Conditions like arthritis, back problems, migraines, or nerve damage can cause ongoing pain. In rare cases, the exact cause can remain a mystery to your care providers.
Chronic pain can have a severe impact on a person’s quality of life. Patients can lose some or most of their mobility, making daily tasks difficult to perform. Even the most basic physical functions — sleeping, walking, sitting, and standing — can be challenging.
On top of all that, chronic pain can also affect a person’s mental health, leading to anxiety or depression. This reduces our ability to handle the pain even more problematic.
How Can a Pain Doctor Help?
A pain doctor, more commonly referred to as a pain management specialist, is a medical practitioner who specializes in diagnosing and treating different types of pain. Having gone through expert training, they bring an arsenal of skills to the table:
- In-depth knowledge of the physiology of pain
- The ability to evaluate patients with complex pain problems
- An understanding of specialized tests for diagnosing painful conditions
- The ability to prescribe medications
- The skills to perform procedures (such as nerve blocks, injections, and ablations)
Unlike other medical professionals who might treat only the symptoms or the underlying condition causing your pain, a pain management specialist focuses on managing the pain itself. They work with you and your regular physician to create a treatment plan based on your specific needs and lifestyle.
The Benefits of Seeing a Pain Doctor
The first and perhaps most important advantage of seeing a pain management specialist is their ability to pinpoint the cause of a patient’s pain. They act like a detective, taking the time to evaluate your condition to find the actual source of your discomfort. Knowing where to target the treatment can be half the battle.
There are many benefits to seeing a pain doctor near you, the main one being a personalized treatment plan. Pain management specialists can take advantage of one or more types of therapies to address the condition, such as:
- Medications
- Physical therapy
- Psychological counseling
- Spinal cord stimulation
- Alternative therapies such as yoga, meditation, or hot needling
- Minimally invasive procedures such as nerve blocks, corticosteroid injections, and radiofrequency ablations
- Surgery (usually only in severe cases)
They can also teach you pain management techniques that you can do at home, and guide you on the path to getting back to doing the things you love doing. Because ultimately, the goal of seeing a pain doctor is to improve your quality of life.
How to Find a Pain Doctor Near You
HPM is a network of pain management clinics located in rural communities. Our staff of highly trained pain management specialists know how to identify the precise cause of a patient’s pain and use advanced medical techniques to treat them.
Our team is dedicated to providing high-quality healthcare to communities that may otherwise have limited access to specialized services like pain management. Visit HPM’s website to find a location near you.
