New Treatments for Getting Relief from Chronic Pains 

Chronic pain is any pain that lasts for over a few months. There are some forms of chronic pains that are not curable at all. However, one can still find relief after undergoing treatment.

The right kind of treatment for your chronic pain may depend on the following factors:

• The part that was hurt

• Cause of the pain

• Magnitude of pain

• Duration for which the pain is lasting

Over the past years, treatments have undergone lot of changes. Patients now have many more options for getting relief from their pain than ever before.

Opioids

These are powerful medicines that can be prescribed by doctors when you are suffering from chronic pain. The meds can reduce or block your pain signals. Some of the common meds are:

• OxyContin or Oxycodone

• Methadone

• Hydrocodone or Vicodin

• Fentanyl

There are several opioids that are in use for many centuries while others have become popular in the recent decades. Though these medicines are quite effective to give relief to chronic or severe pain, they also have certain side-effects. These includes:

• Constipation

• Dizziness

• Confusion

• Vomiting

• Nausea

• Drowsiness

Pain Shots

These treatments transmit medicine exactly in that location where your body needs it. A physician ideally takes the help of an X-ray to detect where the medicine should be put.

Your doctor has the discretion to determine which medicine suits you the most. Often the docs use a combination of painkillers or local anesthetics along with Steroids. The affected muscle or nerve is numbed using local anesthetics. Inflammation can be eased out by steroids that reduce pain.

You can find various kinds of pain shots for relieving you from chronic pain.

Trigger point injections - These are given in your muscles’ tight spots. But at times such spots can be excessively tight that squeeze the nerves leading to pain in other parts of your body.

Epidural steroid injections – These are helpful for disc problems such as herniated discs. These shots are given on your spinal columns.

Nerve root blocks intend to target those nerves that are located along your spine leading to pain in your other parts like legs or arms.

RFA or Radiofrequency Ablation

RFA is used to treat those nerves that are responsible for transmitting pain signals to the brain. A needle is used by your doctor that has a heated up tip. This needle is then positioned quite close to the target nerve. The nerve gets zapped by the heat and thus makes sure that it is unable to transmit the pain signal.

RFA is helpful in curing various kinds of pain like neuropathy and arthritis. Studies have proved that it can be also used for easing out hip and back pain. Moreover, it is also helpful for your neck and knee.

A recent type of RFA is known as “cooled RFA” and claims to offer more accurate relief. Research is still going on to find out whether cool RFA is actually more effective as compared to regular RFA.

How Your Family Docotor Finds the Right Relief for Your Chronic Pain

Whenever a patient first presents with pain, it is common to recommend over-the-counter pain relievers and inflammation reduction drugs. This helps establish a base line for whether further treatment is necessary. Not all medications are safe to use by yourself and should be administered by a physician. Get the relief you are looking for with your initial appointment at Phoenix Family Medical Clinic. Our physicians are very adept and experienced at treating various diseases and also treat chronic pain.

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