Prolonged persistent pain is not the usual pain you feel after an acute injury. Pain from an acute injury makes you feel awful for several days before it subsides gradually, indicating that you are in the recovery process. However, chronic long-term pain is unrelenting and incalculable. Your reputable pain expert, Dr. Dev Sen Fredericksburg, asserts that chronic pain can improve today while it can render you immobile the next day. Your doctor offers his patients experiencing chronic pain a range of effective injectable treatments, including epidural injections, to ease their symptoms.
Injections
Pain management with injections is safe and offers a long-term solution to your pain. Your doctor will use these injections to treat a variety of neurological or orthopedic injuries and conditions. Depending on your condition, and its location and severity, your doctor may use the injections to offer long-term or temporary relief. The various injection types your doctor may recommend to relieve you of your painful symptoms include:
- Facet joint injections. Your facet joints connect and articulate your spinal vertebrae. Your physician will use the injection to numb your facet joint, giving you relief. During the X-ray-guided treatment, your doctor will inject a mixture of anti-inflammatory medication and an anesthetic into your affected joint.
- Sacroiliac joint injections. The sacroiliac joint connects the lower part of your spine to your hip bones/pelvis. This joint is susceptible to sacroiliac joint dysfunction, which may result in chronic pain. Your doctor may use the injections to diagnose the source of your pain and provide relief from your symptoms. The fluoroscopic-guided procedure prompts your doctor to inject a combination of a numbing agent and steroid into your affected joint. After the treatment, the care provider may follow it with a chiropractic adjustment or physical therapy.
- Occipital nerve blocks. These injections treat migraines and other headache types using a local anesthetic with (or without) a minimal corticosteroid dosage. Your doctor injects the contents at the back of your head close to your occipital nerves (that run from your upper part of the spine to your scalp).
- Selective nerve root block. Sometimes it is hard to determine the root cause of nerve pain radiating from your neck down to your arms. In such a case, your care provider may use a selective nerve root block injection to identify your pain’s source before recommending treatment.
- Epidural injections. The injections are common with lower back pains and leg pains and they work by injecting steroid medication and local anesthesia into your epidural space. Your epidural space is a fat-filled area covering your spinal cord to protect it and your surrounding nerves from damage.
Chronic pain may limit your ability to live an active life. Your everyday tasks can turn into difficult and burdensome chores. Just like the numerous conditions, you will find various treatment options to choose from to help alleviate your painful symptoms. To know more about pain management and how the injections may help relieve you from chronic pain, contact your doctor or schedule an appointment.