The Many Approaches to Managing Your Pain

One in five Americans struggles with chronic pain and, 20% of them report high-impact pain, which interferes with their lives in meaningful ways. To say that pain is common in the United States would be an understatement, as these numbers don’t take into account problems with acute pain.

Here at Comprehensive Pain Management, Drs. Do Chan and Boris Shwartzman and our team work diligently to help restore quality of life to patients who are struggling with pain. We understand all too well the effects that pain can have on your life, and our singular goal is to help you find relief.

Why the pain?

One of the primary reasons for the increase in pain in the United States and around the world is the simple fact that we’re living longer. The United Nations reports that someone who was born in 1960 could expect to live to 52.5 years, but now that age has bumped up to 72.

As your body endures more years of wear and tear, musculoskeletal damage and disease has more opportunity to set in. For example, that old high-school knee injury can come back to haunt you in your 60s and 70s in the form of arthritis.

Combating your pain

As our population ages and lives longer, pain management experts like ourselves are answering the call. Our goal is to help you lead an active and happy lifestyle, free from the constraints that pain can place on you.

To accomplish this, we offer a wide range of pain management solutions, which include:

Injections and nerve blocks

One of the most effective ways to combat pain is through injections. These types of injections include epidural injections, joint injections, and trigger point injections that contain a combination of a local anesthetic and a steroid to reduce inflammation and numb the nerve that’s sending pain signals.

Another method for nerve blocking is radiofrequency ablation, a technique in which we cauterize the end of your nerve to prevent it from sending pain signals.

Spinal cord stimulation

This pain-management technique doesn’t rely on medications and doesn’t involve a surgery that alters your body. Instead, we implant a spinal cord stimulation device along your spine that sends electrical impulses that garble (and lessen) the pain signaling.

Surgical intervention

If you have a problem in your spine, such as spinal stenosis or a damaged disc, we can turn to minimally invasive surgical techniques, including:

• The mild® procedure for spinal stenosis 
• The Disc-FX® System for damaged discs
• Intracept® for intraosseous nerve ablation
• A Discectomy to remove a damaged disc
• OsteoCool™ RF Ablation System to eliminate painful bone tumors
• Kyphoplasty for compression fractures

These surgical interventions go far beyond treating the symptom, as we address the root cause of your pain.

Medications

Another way to combat chronic pain is through medications, and we offer medication management. Unfortunately, the risk of developing a substance use disorder is a clear and present danger when using drugs to address pain, but we put protections in place to ensure that you use the medications as instructed. 

As you can see, you have many options when it comes to pain management, and we pride ourselves on offering the very latest techniques that will help you break free from your pain.

To determine which pain management approach is right for you, please contact one of our offices in Attleboro or Franklin, Massachusetts, or South Kingstown or Warwick, Rhode Island.