Many people suffer from chronic or acute back pain. The pain can be so debilitating that you may not be able to function. Fortunately, there are a number of different treatments available for back pain. Your doctors at the Southeastern Spine Institute (SSI) offer a wealth of treatments such as:
- Physical therapy
- Pain medication
- Surgery
- Back pain injections
With the different treatments for pain available, you may get relief from one treatment or from a combination of options. At SSI, surgery is always the last option and only considered when no other treatment is effective.
Pros and Cons of Various Therapies
Although oral pain medication can help ease your pain for a few hours, it’s not always recommended for long-term use because of the risk of building up a tolerance that can lead to addiction. Physical therapy helps many people with their pain, but you have to be vigilant about maintaining the exercises even when you’re at home.
Surgery presents a host of risks for risks, such as medical error, infection and bleeding, not to mention a long recovery period. For many, back pain injections have proven to be the most helpful. Your doctors at SSI offer a number of effective injections, including:
Side effects from back pain injections, such as infection and bleeding, are extremely rare. But injections don’t always work for everyone, and they don’t offer long-term relief. Back pain injections typically provide short-term pain relief, so you can feel good enough to participate in physical therapy. They also must be accompanied by lifestyle changes.
Natural Back Pain Injections
There have been some remarkable steps taken to find better solutions for the back pain that so many people suffer. One of the most promising areas of treatment involves the use of stem cells to regenerate damaged cells in your spine.
Stem cell therapy relies on your own cells. Stem cells can be removed from your bone marrow and reinserted into damaged discs so your body can heal naturally. In many cases, your healing is permanent, if you don’t reinjure it. Stem cell therapy in Charleston is one of the most requested new therapies for back pain.
Platelet-rich plasma, usually referred to as PRP, has also shown to have great potential for treating lower back pain that involves the sacroiliac joint. This process still relies on using your own cells, but from your blood this time. Your platelets are separated from your red blood cells, and then they’re injected into the damaged discs.
Options Abound
The best part of visiting the spine specialists at SSI is that all they treat are backs. So, the doctors continually seek out the latest techniques and treatments so that you can have the most productive experience with your back pain treatment.
And you’ll find it all under one roof at the SSI campus. Following back pain injections, for example, you’ll meet your physical therapist who works closely with your primary back physician. The doctors at SSI always begin with the most conservative treatments, of which injections may be your best option to help you avoid move invasive procedures.