What Kind Of Doctor For Back Pain

Medicines For Back Pain

Acute back pain often goes away on its own over several weeks. In some people, back pain persists. It may not go away completely or it may get more painful at times.

Medicines can also help with your back pain.

OVER-THE-COUNTER PAIN RELIEVERS

Over-the-counter means you can buy them without a prescription.

Most health care providers recommend acetaminophen first because it has fewer side effects than other drugs. Do not take more than 3 grams on any one day, or over 24 hours. Overdosing on acetaminophen can cause severe damage to your liver. If you already have liver disease, ask your doctor if acetaminophen is OK for you to take.

If your pain continues, your provider may suggest nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs . You can buy some NSAIDs, such as ibuprofen and naproxen, without a prescription. NSAIDs help reduce the swelling around the swollen disk or arthritis in the back.

NSAIDs and acetaminophen in high doses, or if taken for a long time, can cause serious side effects. Side effects include stomach pain, ulcers or bleeding, and kidney or liver damage. If side effects occur, stop taking the drug right away and tell your provider.

If you are taking pain relievers for more than a week, tell your provider. You may need to be watched for side effects.

NARCOTIC PAIN RELIEVERS

Examples of narcotics include:

• Fentanyl — available as a patch
• Hydrocodone

Possible side effects of these drugs include:

• Drowsiness

What Is A Pain Treatment Clinic

A pain treatment clinic, such as Pain Treatment Specialists, is exactly what it sounds like. A group of diverse medical professionals who are dedicated to relieving your chronic pain, no matter the cause. This way, you do not have to search for different doctors that specialize in back pain, they are all in one facility for your convenience. At Pain Treatment Specialists, we focus on pain relief that does not involve large surgeries or addictive painkillers, but options that target the source of your pain in the least invasive way possible.For example, instead of spinal surgery, we like to try methods such as Sacroiliac Joint Injections, to treat back inflammation and numb the corresponding pain. We have a number of different doctors that specialize in back pain, as well as other types of pain. We work directly with you throughout the whole journey, to come up with a diagnosis and treatment plan that you are comfortable with.

Our team of pain treatment specialists are highly trained in many different causes and treatments of back pain. All of our back pain doctors were trained at Ivy-League schools, and work out of state of the art facilities. At Pain Treatment Specialists, we are constantly researching new and improved methods of treatment, to ensure that our patients receive the finest care. We operate as part of the VIP Medical Group, who are some of the top pain treatment institutes in New York and New Jersey.

Additional Sleeping Accessories For Sleepers With Back Pain

Besides a mattress, other accessories can play a part in making your bed conducive to quality, pain-free sleep. Upgrading your pillows and your bed base can be done as a lower-cost way of improving your sleeping surface, or you can purchase these along with a new mattress as part of a complete overhaul.

Pillows

Pillows play an important role in preventing and reducing back and neck pain. Pillows that provide proper support to the neck can improve spinal alignment because the spine extends into the neck . In addition to supporting the head, pillows can be strategically placed to provide cushioning and comfort to other parts of the body.

Numerous factors affect which pillow can best help any individual fight neck and back pain. The amount of loft of your pillow should fit your personal preference and body shape. The right loft level is also largely determined by the firmness of your mattress and your sleeping position, as outlined in the following tables.

To reduce back pain, pillows can be used to support other parts of the body besides just the head and neck.

Bed Platforms and Bases

The base of the bed can contribute to a supportive overall sleeping surface for people with back pain.

Some people opt for an adjustable bed, which allows for the upper and lower body to be raised at various angles. Many adjustable bed frames also include a heat or massage feature that can be a nice bonus for back pain sufferers.

Read Also: How To Deal With Upper Back Pain

How To Get Relief On A Budget

When youre struggling with back pain, you may feel like youre willing to give anything to get relief, but the realities of your budget can mean that you have to think about the impact of any mattress purchase on your bottom line. The good news is that there are multiple wallet-friendly ways to improve your bed, enhance your sleep, and give your back a rest.

Coordinates Care Between Multiple Healthcare Professionals

Your pain management doctor acts as the lead in your pain management plan. As a post on ZocDoc explains:

The discipline is multidisciplinary, meaning that you dont just see a doctor but also will likely have the opportunity to interact with a physical therapist and a counselor. In this way, a comprehensive holistic plan for addressing your pain can be developed.

Once your pain management doctor has determined the types of therapies that could work for you, theyll coordinate your care across multiple doctors and healthcare professionals. While youll need to be a dedicated and responsive advocate for your care, you can put a lot of responsibility on your pain doctor and clinic for coordinating that care.

Read Also: What To Do With Lower Back Pain At Home

Can A Mattress Cause Back Pain

A mattress can definitely be a cause of back pain because it plays such an important role in how the body is positioned through the night. Most people know that posture is important but only think about their posture in the context of standing and sitting. This can cause them to overlook the importance of having a mattress that is the proper fit for them based on their body shape, weight, and sleeping position.

If the spine and joints arent aligned and well-cushioned during sleep, they wont be able to relax. Instead of recovering, the body will be strained, exacerbating pre-existing back issues and sowing the seeds for new ones. The easiest way to know whether a mattress is a contributing factor to back pain is if the pain tends to be the most pronounced in the morning when you wake up. If the pain is the worst when you get out of bed and subsides during the day, theres a good chance that your mattress is playing a part in your aches and pains.

What Kind Of Doctor Do I See For Back Pain

There are many doctors to see for back pain, so it can be confusing to find the one who would most effectively solve your problems a back doctor vs. chiropractor.

Broadly speaking, the doctors who can help alleviate your spine problems fall into the following categories:

• primary care providers
• back pain doctors
• therapists.

When youre back gets seized up in a fit of debilitating pain, a primary care provider will be the first person you should call. This group would include lower back pain chiropractors, primary care physicians, and doctors of osteopathic medicine.

These doctors assess the causes and remedies to your spine and would help if you have multiple pain locations that expand outside your spine.

The second group spine specialists mainly deal with issues concerning spinal conditions. They deal with back pain but are trained to understand the intricacies of the central nervous system.

Should you need surgery on your spine, spine surgeons have the expertise to handle that fragile organ with little harm done to you. Physiatrists, neurologists, anesthesiologists, and rheumatologists also reside in this category.

Finally, Therapists help rehabilitate mobility and function after back injury or surgery. Should something go wrong in operation, and you need extra time to recuperate, a physical therapist, occupational therapist, and clinical psychologist in this field would be your best friend.

Recommended Reading: What Can Cause Lower Back And Hip Pain

Can Lower Back Pain Be A Sign Of Something Serious Like Cancer

Lower back pain can be related to cancer. In fact, it is one of the first symptoms of prostate cancer when it metastasizes and creates lesions. Almost any cancer can spread to the back and some, like sarcoma, can originate in the back. Be cautious, especially if you are experiencing other symptoms besides lower back pain. Talk to your doctor if you have additional symptoms or concerns.

Can An Orthopedic Doctor Treat Sciatica

Orthopedic. For a small percentage of sciatica cases, orthopedic surgery may be the best option available for relief, such as a discectomy or laminectomy, both of which removes the source of the pain of sciatica, from herniated discs to bone spurs to other tissues creating pressure against the nerves.

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How To Find Pain Doctors Near Me

Of course, once you know you want to visit a pain doctor, your first step will be finding one that can help with your pain. ASRA recommends:

The most important consideration in looking for a pain management specialist is to find someone who has the training and experience to help you with your particular pain problem and with whom you feel a comfortable rapport. Since many types of chronic pain may require a complex treatment plan as well as specialized interventional techniques, pain specialists today must have more training than in the past, and you should learn about how your pain physician was trained and whether he or she has board certification in pain management.

You can find more information about finding a compassionate, highly-qualified pain management doctor in our post, How To Find Pain Management Doctors Near You. We recommend using credentials, as suggested by ASRA, as well as with personal or online reviews to narrow your search. The Arthritis Foundation also has a great list of questions to ask a potential pain clinic before committing to treatment.

You can also find a listing of all of the PainDoctor.com-certified pain management doctors by clicking the button below. These doctors are highly-trained and part of a network of doctors committed to relieving your pain.

Can A Mattress Cause Hip Pain

A mattress can contribute to hip pain if it doesnt give your body the right amount of support. If you have sharp pressure points, it can cause irritation or even pinched nerves. In addition, if your alignment at night is out of whack, your muscles and other tissues cant truly relax, generating stress and interrupting bodily recovery.

Many factors can contribute to pain, and its not always possible to pinpoint just one cause. As a result, it may be a challenge to know for sure if your hip pain is related to your mattress. If you find that the pain is worse when you get out of bed and gets gradually better during the day, it may be a sign that your mattress is part of the problem.

Recommended Reading: Do Orthotics Help Back Pain

Diagnoses The Cause Of Your Pain

Diagnosing the exact cause of your pain is the first step to finding a treatment that works. A pain management doctor is specialized in the many causes of pain, and the underlying conditions leading to pain.

Pain isnt straightforward. Lower back pain could be caused by many conditions, for example. It could be musculoskeletal in nature and related to your posture at your work desk, where a forward-leaning head is putting pressure on your neck thats felt down to your back. Your lower back pain could be due to a herniated disc or spinal stenosis. It could be related to sciatica. Or, your pain could be due to a degenerative condition like arthritis or degenerative disc disease.

And thats just one pain condition. HealthCommunities.com explains:

Pain management specialists use a number of techniques to diagnose and treat pain disorders. Pain evaluations often include taking a personal and family medical history, assessing the patients lifestyle , reviewing prior tests , and performing a physical examination.

Indications For When To See A Spine Surgeon For Low Back Pain

Low back surgery is only capable of correcting anatomical conditions that result in either spinal instability or nerve pinching. If either of these problems is present on an imaging study and the patient’s symptoms fit with the clinical and radiographic picture, then spine surgery may be indicated. If there is no identifiable anatomic cause of a patient’s low back pain , then back surgery is not an option. If non-surgical treatments fail to alleviate a patient’s pain, this is not in and of itself an indication for having spine surgery. There must also be an anatomical lesion that can be identified as the cause of the patient’s low back pain.

See Surgery for Lower Back Pain

The decision on whether or not to undergo back surgery for low back pain is almost always the patient’s decision. Only in rare instances – such as cauda equina syndrome or an abdominal aortic aneurysm – is immediate medical attention required. The spine surgeon should be able to give the patient enough information about the pros and cons of the procedure to assist the patient with his or her decision making process. A spine surgeon who be either an orthopedic spine surgeon or a neurosurgeon that specializes in spine surgery.

See Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Treatment

Important factors that patients may want to consider prior to seeing a spine surgeon for their low back pain include:

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When To See An Orthopedic Doctor For Back Pain

Back pain is a fairly common occurrence, especially among active adults and the elderly. The pain can come and go, or it may persist. Sometimes it can be hard to determine whether it warrants medical attention.

Here are a few guidelines to help you decide when to see an orthopedic doctor. An orthopedic doctor specializes in the health of bones and joints and can diagnose and treat back pain that is caused by a variety of musculoskeletal ailments.

Why Does My Back Hurt

There are various causes of back pain, including muscle pain with or without muscles spasms, disc pain, joint pain, or nerve pain. In most cases, these are not harmful or dangerous.

Muscle pain is the most common acute back pain. The period of acute pain is usually limited and may be treated at home or by primary care doctors. Sometimes, these patients may be referred to doctors who specialize in back pain. Some back pain can be a symptom of a more serious problem, like a fracture, infection, or cancer in the spine, said H. Michael Guo, MD, a Duke physiatrist who specializes in spine care. These patients should be seen by spine doctors. Fortunately, spine infections and cancer are very rare and usually only affect people with special risk factors. Spine fractures are also rare and may be associated with thinned spine bones or injuries.

Also Check: How Do I Sleep With Lower Back Pain

Ask About Specific Red

While rare, certain types of sciatic nerve pain may indicate a medical emergency and require immediate treatment. Ask your doctor if there are specific red-flag symptoms that you need to look out for. Understanding these symptoms can help you make a timely visit to the doctor and prevent serious complications.

See When Sciatica Pain Is a Medical Emergency

As a general rule, if you have worsening neurological signs and symptoms, if neurological deficits occur in both legs, if you have bladder or bowel incontinence, or if symptoms occur after an accident or trauma, you should seek immediate medical attention. These signs and symptoms may indicate serious medical conditions such as cauda equina syndrome, which must be treated on an urgent basis to preserve leg function.

Arthritis Of The Spine

Arthritis of the spine the slow degeneration of the spinal joints is the most frequent cause of lower back pain. All of us experience wear and tear as we age, and it is normal for your lower back to start acting up as you get older. As the cartilage breaks down between the spinal joints, surrounding tissues may become inflamed. The inflammation and the thinning of cartilage increase friction in the joints, which may cause pain in the lower back.

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What Kind Of Doctor Should I See To Heal Sciatic Nerve

• VoteSaved My Life

four broken ribs and a split bleeding spleen i still have pain on my whole left side still hurts and now my sciatic nerves are hurting i tried chiropractic it got worse do not use aggressive of any kind water therapy is helping the most

besides operation what else i have to do for saiatica

Hello Anon

Heat therapy helps, as well as massage therapy. Make sure you also rest and avoid activities that could trigger more back pain.

Beginners yoga and Pilates are gentle exercises that can help.

If you feel pain doing anything stop the activity and take a break.

Best,

I cannot stress highly enough that all chiropractors are NOT the same . As a chiropractor, there are several ways to conservatively treat sciatica, however, the treatment must be based on what the cause is, and there are multiple causes of sciatica.

Sciatica as a diagnosis only describes pain going down the leg, therefore further investigation by examination and possibly diagnostic testing may be necessary. I have an article on my website about sciatica here Dr. T on Sciatica.

In cases where the sciatica is severe, I will usually co-treat with an MD, so medication and chiropractic care is used at the same time to control the symptoms.

I have many things on my website in the health topics section on chiropractic and chiropractors that you may not see on another chiropractic website, as my take on subluxation is the modern version of it. http://www.DrTChiro.com

I hope that helps,