One might assume that your general practitioner or internist is an expert when it comes to treating your back since back pain is such a common illness. It is not necessary to be true. To rule out other problems that may affect your spine such as pain originating elsewhere in your body that may afflict the back then starting with your primary physician’s place. While a general practitioner can diagnose a pinched nerve or disease that may produce back pain because he is not a back pain specialist. A trip to your primary caregiver resolves the backache issues many times. You will most probably be referred to a specialist if the back pain still persists.
Types of Back Pain Specialists
- Your family doctor in most cases is likely to refer you to a back pain specialist called a chiropractor who is capable of treating acute back pain. He doesn’t emphasize drugs to mask pain symptoms and often offers non-surgical treatments is the benefit of seeing a chiropractor.
- For back pain relief another type of
- back specialist is recommended called osteopaths. Along with the psychosocial as well as the physical factors, an osteopath looks at a patient’s environment such as accidents and stress. His emphasis is on correcting the structural problems in the body even though an osteopath may prescribe medication or surgery.
With a variety of non-surgical options including injections and physical therapy, back pain sufferers prefer physiatrists as they are adept at treating back and neck pain. For your backache, these back pain specialists are also likely to tailor an exercise program.
- An orthopedist is a specialist that often treats a range of maladies, from
- low back pain, herniated disk with a pinched nerve to intense spine abnormality and disorders addition. To include a standard orthopedic test, an MRI, or a CT scan, they may prescribe drugs or request a complete workup. Seeing an orthopedist is your best option if you need surgery of any kind or a ruptured disc.
Back Pain Specialist Services
Back pain specialist services give patients the option to try remedies or treatments that in some ways will not be too much of a risk. Studies have shown that these types of surgeries are less risky than the traditional surgeries used before because only two very small incisions are required. Hence, the risk that the patient's wound will be contaminated is lesser than when a much bigger portion of the back is cut. Another benefit of minimally invasive back surgery is the healing time needed after the surgery.
More often than not, a patient can go about doing his or her ADL (activities of daily living) a few days or weeks after. Unlike when the patient has undergone a traditional type of back surgery that healing time becomes months and sometimes one year after. Another benefit of this minimally invasive back treatment surgery is the cost of surgery that, more often than not, is the main issue for the patient undergoing treatment. Since this type of surgery requires only minimal incision size then the materials needed for the operation decreases and so will the costs decrease.
