Treatments

Chronic pain will invariably impact your psychological health. Sometimes depression occurs as a direct result of the pain. In other cases your unique psychology may make you more or less susceptible to pain. Frequently a comprehensive treatment plan includes assessing your psychological health and its impact on your pain syndrome. We may refer you for in-depth screening assessments, cognitive behavioral therapy, biofeedback, or counseling.

Almost every pain syndrome has a physical component as its basis or as a contributing factor. A lack of muscle balance or strength may predispose to an injury. A pain syndrome itself will eventually result in deconditioning, loss of strength and flexibility. Part of a complete treatment plan, and a path to obtaining the best results, includes restoring strength, flexibility and function. Depending on your problem, a wide range of physical modalities may be prescribed, ranging from a simple walking program, home exercises, traction,  yoga, acupuncture, physical therapy, or chiropractic care.

These shots are used to help make an accurate diagnosis of your pain. Many times imaging and examination are not enough. By using an image-guided precision injection, we can refine your diagnosis and subsequently improve the probability of a successful treatment. While every effort is made to keep you comfortable withthe use of local anesthetic, these injections are typically done with no sedation, as this interferes with your ability to assess the result.

These are treatments that concentrate your own body’s growth factors and stem cells to assist in healing, and resolving your pain. Today this means PRP ( platelet rich plasma) or Stem Cell therapy. We are very excited about this area of medicine as it holds great promise. We offer these therapies in our office. They typically would not be considered FDA approved, but are FDA compliant. The currently available studies do not provide the level of evidence needed for insurance company coverage: consequently, they are only available on a cash basis.

Once an accurate diagnosis of your pain syndrome has been made, you may benefit from therapeutic injection, delivering steroids, local anesthetics, microwave energy, plant alkaloids, botulinum toxin and neurolytic medications for a therapeutic effect. These precision injections are typically image-guided with live X-ray or ultrasound. These injections allow direct treatment affected tissues, lowering your exposure to medications like steroids. IV sedation is sometimes used for your comfort or to improve safety.

This area of medicine involves the use of radio signals to either block or modify pain. We have experience with this therapy since the 1980’s but in the last decade, like all things electronic, there have been dramatic advances. This therapy once used almost exclusively for severe pain unresponsive to treatment is now used for moderate to severe pain and maybe appropriately used to reduce dependence on medications. Our program ( the first to use DRG therapy North of San Francisco) uses traditional tonic stimulation, along with the newer therapies of high-frequency (HF-10)stimulation, Burst stimulation and DRG stimulation. Our goal is to match you to the therapy most likely to have the largest impact on your pain.

Our primary focus in the use of anti-aging medicine is to restore tissue function lost due to normal aging or a disease process. This state of Optimal Wellness becomes especially important when trying to heal a painful condition either on your own or with the assistance of growth factors and stem cells. There may be interventions involving exercise, diet, vitamins, supplements andhormone management, which may increase your likelihood of the treatment success.