Chronic Pain – Is There Any Cure?
When it comes to treating chronic pain, there are many treatment options available that offer their own characteristic features. From over-the-counter drug therapy to techniques such as acupuncture, there are many approaches to treating chronic pain.
Unfortunately, neither of these techniques can offer complete pain relief. Let us look at some of the best and most effective chronic pain treatments available.
1. Trigger point injections
Trigger point injection is an approach used to treat areas of sore and paining muscles that have trigger points. In this approach, a pain management Annapolis md uses a small needle to inject a local anesthetic that includes a steroid into a trigger point.
This injection makes the trigger point unresponsive and inactive, which alleviates the pain. This type of approach successfully provides relief.
Trigger point injection can be used to treat pain in the muscles of the legs, arms, neck, and lower back.
In addition to these, it can also be used to treat tension headaches, myofascial pain syndrome, and fibromyalgia.
2. Drug therapy
Mild pain can be relieved using over-the-counter drugs such as NSAIDS, aspirin, ibuprofen, and acetaminophen. NSAIDS help to relieve pain caused by muscle stiffness and aches. They also reduce swelling, inflammation, and irritation.
Pain reliever drugs are available for being ingested by mouth, but they are also available in the form of creams, lotions, and sprays.
3. TENS
Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation therapy uses electrical stimulation to diminish pain. During this procedure, low-level electrical currents are delivered through electrodes placed on the skin over the paining area.
The electrical currents stimulate the nerves in a paining area and send signals to the brain that mix up all the pain signals. TENS is a great treatment option for pain related to diabetic neuropathy.
4. Physical therapy
Physiotherapy can help relieve pain and is a noninvasive and safe method. In this approach, the physiotherapist uses special techniques that improve movement and restore function lost by injury. The doctor adopts stretching, pain-relieving, and muscle straightening techniques.
Acupuncture
This approach helps relieve pain by increasing the release of endorphins which are pain-blocking chemicals. Many acupuncture points lie near nerves. When these nerve points are stimulated, they cause a feeling of fullness in the muscle.
The muscle then sends a signal to the brain that releases endorphins to relieve pain and block the pain signals from reaching the brain.
Acupuncture can be used to treat conditions such as low back pain, headache, menstrual cramps, tennis elbow, carpal tunnel syndrome, and fibromyalgia. Acupuncture, along with other techniques, can help heal chronic pain.
5. Surgery
When physical therapy and standard medicines techniques fail to offer effective pain relief, you need to go for surgical implants to control the pain. There are two main types of surgical implants:
Intrathecal drug delivery
These are also known as infusion pain pumps. The doctors create a pocket underneath your skin so that it can hold a medicine pump. The pink is usually three inches wide and one inch thick.
The surgeon then inserts a tube connecting the pump to the intrathecal space in the spinal cord. This allows the pump to deliver medicines such as morphine to the spinal cord directly.
Spinal cord stimulation implants
In the spinal cord stimulation technique, low-level electric signals are transmitted to the spinal cord to block some nerves.
The bottom line
The above-mentioned techniques are all safe and effective in relieving pain. Others include chiropractic techniques, exercise, rhizotomy, discography, kyphoplasty, and many more.