What You Need to Know About Therapeutic Injections
There’s no question that living with chronic pain or feeling extreme pain while healing from an injury is incredibly challenging. There are times when pain is so severe it can feel completely unbearable.
Luckily, there are many techniques and treatments for managing your pain that will ease your suffering and improve your quality of life. A less commonly known option is the use of therapeutic injections. Here’s what you need to know about them.
Why Use Therapeutic Injections?
Therapeutic injections can be used in combination with medication and physical therapy. Pain medication is the most frequently used kind of pain management, but because stronger painkillers-specifically opioids-have side effects and are very addictive, doctors rarely prescribe them for more than a few weeks.
This is one of many reasons a combination of techniques-such as therapeutic injections with physical therapy-is often recommended for those suffering from pain. If used in conjunction with other methods, less medication can be prescribed, thus lowering risk of drug abuse.
So How Do Therapeutic Injections Work?
First of all, there are many kinds of pain management injections including epidurals, nerve blocks and joint injections. Here are the many ways they can help:
Epidurals
You’ve probably heard about epidurals in association with childbirth, but did you know they can also be administered when a patient is suffering from severe pain post-surgery or from a traumatic injury? Generally, the drugs are injected into the body through a catheter. The catheter is inserted into the epidural space in the spine, and weakens feelings of pain by blocking the signal of nerve fibers in the spinal cord.
Nerve Blocks
Groups of nerves that cause pain to specific parts of your body can be blocked with the injection of nerve-numbing substances called nerve blocks. There are many types of nerve blocks.
Diagnostic nerve blocks locate the source of your pain and usually contain an anesthetic that has a known duration of relief, while prognostic nerve blocks project the outcomes of certain treatments. Preemptive nerve blocks help pain that has resulted from a procedure.
There are nerve blocks for all parts of the body—face, abdomen, shoulder, even eyelids and scalp. A professional at Complete Injury Management will identify the appropriate nerve block for your unique situation.
Joint Injections
Joint injections are used to numb the pain occurring in a specific joint of the body. These are often used either to manage chronic pain or just to diagnose whether the joint in the fact the source of the pain.
At Complete Injury Management, we are dedicated to helping you heal from injuries as quickly as possible and manage your pain. We know how necessary pain management is in easing your suffering and improving the quality of your life. If you can’t come to us, we can come see you. Our offices will provide you everything from pain management to orthopedic surgery to physical therapy. Call us now to schedule an appointment!
