Harvard-Trained Back Doctors Reveal The Best Back Pain Treatments

If you’ve tried your hand at more experiments in the kitchen recently, you’re not alone. The caring gaze of your favorite TV chef makes every dish they make seem accessible and delicious. First up on the new recipe list? Risotto, which requires quite a bit more work than the quick camera cuts on TV implied. As you’re standing and stirring…and stirring…and stirring, your lower back begins to ache. You’ve had lower back pain for 4 weeks, and your lower back muscles are really screaming for relief right now. You pull the pot off the burner, unable to stand and stir for another minute. Despite your best efforts, it looks like you’ll be dining on takeout this evening.

Back pain, sore lumbar back muscles, lower left back pain, and lower back pain on your right side are all quite common. As we age, our backs go through changes related to wear and tear, or possibly from extra weight and added stress. When you’re ready to find an effective back pain treatment, contact the pain management doctors at Pain Treatment Specialists. Our team of Harvard trained back pain doctors are experts in chronic back pain, and use interventional pain medicine treatments instead of the best pain pills for lower back pain. In fact, our back pain doctors in NYC and NJ avoid prescription narcotics and back surgery in favor of minimally invasive back pain treatments.

What Are The Best Back Pain Treatments for Chronic Back Pain?

When you schedule an appointment at Pain Treatment Specialists, our pain doctors help you lose the back pain products you’ve been using to treat chronic back pain. Instead, your back doctor in NYC uses their expertise in pain medicine, anesthesiology, and fluoroscopic-guided treatments to diagnose and treat your chronic back pain. Some of the top back pain treatments offered at Pain Treatment Specialists include:

• Physical Therapy: Your pain management doctor works in conjunction with a physical therapist to create a customized back pain treatment plan. During your physical therapy sessions, you’ll work on your lower back side muscles, or other areas in your lower back that are causing back pain. By using deliberate movements and exercises, your back’s flexibility, strength, and mobility improve during these periods of time.
• SI Joint Injection: If your lower back pain is caused by sciatica, then a sacroiliac joint (SI) injection provides tremendous pain relief. Your pain management doctor uses a fluoroscopic-guided x-ray and injects a local anesthetic into your sacroiliac joint. An SI joint injection provides long-lasting lower back pain relief.
• Lumbar Facet Injection: Facet joints are small joints at each segment of the spine, and they help guide your spine’s motion while providing stability. Your facet joints may become painful due to arthritis of the spine, aging, or wear and tear on your back. A lumbar facet injection uses local anesthetic and/or a corticosteroid injection for back pain relief.

Schedule an appointment at Pain Treatment Specialists to discuss one of these minimally invasive back pain treatments, or others such as electrical nerve stimulation, for pain management.

How Do You Know if Your Back Injury is Serious?

When your lower back hurts, how do you know if your back injury is serious, or if it will go away on its own? The only way to know how serious your back injury or back pain is is to contact a pain management doctor for professional medical advice. However, if you’re feeling lower back pain radiating to the abdomen, or lower right back pain that radiates to the abdomen, you should make a trip to an urgent care center immediately to rule out any serious medical conditions.

Another way to determine if your back injury or back pain is serious is looking at how it affects your daily life. Are you taking anti-inflammatory drugs on a daily basis? Is the pain worse as the day goes along? Is your back pain recovery time longer than you expected? If you’re finding that your back pain is impacting your life on a daily basis, then it’s time to seek professional medical advice. Instead of working your daily life around your back pain, you can return to a pain-free life after scheduling an appointment with a back pain doctor at Pain Treatment Specialists. By using minimally invasive back pain treatments, your back pain recovery time is minimal– while your results are exceptional.

What Are Some Ways I Can Treat Back Pain At Home?

The goal of meeting with a pain management doctor is so that you can lose the back pain products for good. However, there are some ways that you can treat your back pain at home and find temporary relief from lower back pain. Note that these methods are not meant to substitute your appointment at Pain Treatment Specialists, but instead meant to supplement the expert back pain treatments provided by our Harvard-trained team.

1. Use Anti-Inflammatory Drugs: Over-the-counter anti-inflammatory drugs are fine for short-term back pain relief. Anti-inflammatory drugs are not meant to be taken for a long period of time, as this can cause medical conditions and also place undue stress on your liver. Pay attention to dosing instructions and do not exceed the daily recommended amount.
2. RICE, RICE Baby: Did you sing that to the same tune as an early 90’s rap classic? That should help you remember the useful acronym RICE, which stands for “rest, ice, compress, and elevate.” When you rest your back, you’re trying to avoid activities that make your back pain worse. Find positions on your couch or bed that are comfortable, and stay put for a little while. Ice your back for 20 minutes, and alternate with a heating pad to reduce swelling, and also soothe your lower back muscles. Compress your lower back muscles with a back brace or athletic bandage to provide support while you’re sitting or standing. Elevate your back with pillows, cushions, or other items that take the stress off of your lower back.

Book an appointment at Pain Treatment Specialists to find out how great life can be when you’re not constantly dealing with lower back pain. Your favorite TV chef will be proud that you’re finally able to finish stirring your risotto, and you’ll get to enjoy that dish of rice, rice baby!