When you or one of your loved ones is involved in an accident, they must get medical attention immediately. The first question you will ask yourself is: Where can I get a pain management doctor near me? It is wise to ask yourself this question in advance so that when the unfortunate event happens, you will have an idea of where to rush to.
After an accident, whether it is a car accident or a work accident, you must see an appropriate pain management physician. Your primary care doctor can only help you decide which specific pain management doctor you should visit.
But what does a pain management doctor do for you?
Unlike your primary care physician, a pain management doctor will assess the pain and treat a wide variety of pain conditions. Pain management physicians specialize in the treatment of sudden pain conditions like headaches and other forms of long-term pains like lower back pains. Pain management clinics are mostly outpatient services.
A pain management specialist will provide the patient with several therapies and procedures to help stop pain from the source. There are different types of pains that the pain management doctors can handle; these include:
- Pain from tissue injury after a work or car accident or special conditions like arthritis.
- Other pains are caused by nerve injury or nervous system complications like a stroke.
- In case of a severe accident, you may get pain from both tissue and nerves. This can cause back pain and associated complication.
In case of the above-mentioned types of pain, it is best to consult a specialized pain management doctor who will be able to assess, diagnose and treat your specific type of pain.
Certified pain management doctors have over nine years of medical training that is explicitly centered on alleviating pain. After their general medical training, they go through additional years of training that focuses only on pain management therapy. Afterward, they are usually certified by the American Board of Pain Medicine.
After a car or work accident, you will be rushed to a pain management clinic for quick management of the pain on the affected part. A pain management clinic is specially designed to handle such accidents and associated pains. But what exactly happens in a pain management clinic?
What happens in a pain management clinic?
Immediately after an accident, a patient should be rushed to a pain management clinic. Often time, adrenaline may set it, and the patient may not experience pain immediately. A thorough assessment needs to ascertain whether the patient has internal injuries.
Here are some of the treatment approaches that are done in a pain management clinic:
- These clinics are primarily outpatient with ultrasound and radiological (X-Ray) imaging procedures. Oftentimes, pain management doctors will perform the procedures from a hospital nearby. Some medical procedures will require sedation before carrying them out. The pain management clinic is equipped to handle such cases. But in many cases, this may not be necessary. The pain management clinic consists of nurses and other caregivers who have specialized in pain management.
- At the pain management clinic, the doctor will assess the nature of the injury and propose treatment or necessary physical therapy required. After an accident, your primary care practitioner will only prescribe some basic pain relievers and physical therapy to alleviate the pain. But for advanced pain management, he will usually refer you to a pain management clinic for specialized treatment.
- Pain management clinics deal with first-line management of pain using necessary mediations like anti-inflammatories, muscle relaxers, or anti-depressants, including injections that help numb the pain. The clinics will also have Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulators (TENS) that utilize skin pads to deliver a low voltage electrical current to the affected areas.
- Additionally, the pain management clinics will handle more complicated procedures like radiofrequency ablation (RFA) or viscosupplementation. Here, heat or chemicals are used to block the pain signals from being transmitted through the nerves. This is explicitly used for chronic problems like spinal arthritis, where lubricating fluids are injected to manage arthritis pain (viscosupplementation). For such pains, your pain management doctor may recommend taking stronger drugs.
- Another standard procedure that takes place at the pain management clinic is the third-line pain management procedure that include a pain pump implant or a stimulator in the spinal cord. These drugs work to alleviate the pain in the backbone, the control core of the body for pain sensing. Another alternative is regenerative stem cell therapy.
Therefore, it is advisable to see a pain management doctor near you immediately after an accident.
This will help you get specialized treatment faster. When you start the pain treatment immediately, your chance of getting well is higher. Ensure you procure the services of a certified pain management doctor near you.
