Chronic Pain Specialist

What is chronic pain?

Chronic pain is defined as pain that continues when it shouldn’t. Although the exact time frame for a diagnosis of chronic pain can vary, chronic pain generally lasts longer than 12 weeks. 

Acute pain, which lasts for up to 12 weeks, is a protective signal from your body. It warns you that you need to pay attention to an injury or problem within your body. Once you treat acute pain, it normally fades as you return to normal. 

Chronic pain, however, persists long after you’d expect to feel better. In some instances, chronic pain can occur when there’s no clear reason for it. Even with treatment, chronic pain continues to disrupt your life.

What causes chronic pain?

Chronic pain may stem from injury, disease, or damage to your nervous system. There are many specific sources of chronic pain, with some of the most common including:

• Back pain
• Neck pain
• Sciatica
• Headaches and migraines
• Arthritis
• Shingles
• Neuropathy
• Fibromyalgia
• Cancer pain
• Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS)
• Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorders

Some people experience psychogenic pain, which is pain that’s unrelated to disease, injury, or visible damage within the body. 

How is chronic pain treated?

The same pain relief methods that work for acute pain might not provide adequate relief for chronic pain. Additionally, common solutions for acute pain, such as limited opioid use for a short period, aren’t safe to use long term. 

Chronic pain management uses different approaches because it focuses on long-term pain relief and a return to the maximum level of function possible. Capital Pain Consultants often prescribes a multimodal approach to chronic pain, which can include:

Conservative approaches

While conservative care isn’t adequate for chronic pain on its own, it can work hand-in-hand with other approaches. Some common conservative care methods include physical therapy, bracing, and custom orthotics.

Injections

Epidural steroid injections, nerve blocks, facet joint injections, and other types of injections are usually a firstline treatment in chronic pain management. These injections can ease pain for a few days up to a few months. They can also pinpoint the area of pain, which then allows for other longer-term treatments in that area.

Radiofrequency ablation

Radiofrequency ablation destroys painful nerves. While the nerve does grow back over time, this treatment lasts longer than injections.

Advanced pain management 

Capital Pain Consultants offers several advanced pain management solutions for people with stubborn chronic pain. Spinal cord stimulators interrupt the nerve signals to stop pain, while intrathecal pain pumps deliver powerful pain-relieving medication into the cerebrospinal fluid between the spinal cord and its membrane. 

The experts create a personalized pain management plan for your particular needs. 

For help with chronic pain, call Capital Pain Consultants, or click on the provided booking link today.