An estimated 50 million Americans endure chronic pain. But you don’t have to be one of them. At Alliance Orthopedics, our board-certified doctors and nurse practitioners help patients safely manage pain and reclaim their lives.
Chronic pain can limit your mobility, flexibility, strength, and endurance — all of which diminish your quality of life and productivity.
With offices in NJ, the pain management experts at Alliance Orthopedics develop customized plans, using one or multiple approaches. To learn about the many methods available, it helps first to understand how pain works.
Pain 101
The feeling of pain comes from messages that zip through your nervous system. When you hurt yourself, the injury turns on pain sensors in that area. These sensors send a message in the form of an electrical signal, making its way from nerve to nerve until it reaches your brain. Your brain processes the signal and sends out the message that you hurt. Pain falls into two general categories.
Acute pain
Acute pain has a specific cause, such as a broken bone or a burn, and resolves once the affected area is treated or healed.
Chronic pain
Chronic pain is generally defined as any pain that lasts more than 4 weeks. It often outlasts the initial trigger. Chronic pain can occur in nearly any part of your body, feel sharp or dull, and be constant or intermittent. Chronic pain can also be caused by a medical condition such as sciatica, degenerative disc disease, arthritis, herniated or bulging disc, spinal stenosis, or pinched nerves.
Common types of chronic pain
Among the most prevalent types of pain we treat include:
- Back pain – (slipped discs, fractures, osteoporosis, muscles, tendons, and ligaments issue arthritis)
- Neck pain – (Nerve compression, bone spurs and herniated or compressed discs among neck vertebrae, joint wear and tear, soft tissue injuries, degenerative diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis)
- Shoulder pain – (fractures, Instability or inflammation in the shoulder joint, tendonitis, pinched nerves, dislocation, Frozen shoulder, torn cartilage)
- Knee pain – (fractures, ligament injury, such as an ACL, meniscal tear, dislocation, arthritis, tendinitis, bursitis, gout)
- Elbow pain – (Strains, sprains, fractures, dislocation, golfer’s elbow or tennis elbow, trapped nerves, arthritis)
- Hand and wrist pain – (fractures, carpal tunnel syndrome, tendinitis, and arthritis)
- Hip pain – (tendonitis, arthritis, bursitis, fractures, muscle strain or sprain, Infection)
- Foot and ankle pain – (fractures, sprains or strains, Injury to the Achilles tendon, arthritis, tendonitis, bunions, hammertoes, and bone spurs, and plantar fasciitis)
Our pain management solutions
Our pain management programs are customized for each patient and continually re-evaluated. They may include one or more of the following:
- Spinal Decompression
- Nerve blocks
- Pulsed radiofrequency ablation
- Lumbar, thoracic, and cervical epidural injections
- Regenerative medicine
- Spinal cord stimulation
- Medication
- Surgery
Why you shouldn’t ignore chronic pain
Untreated, chronic pain not only negatively impacts your quality of life but can snowball into additional mental and physical ailments, such as depression, anxiety, and insomnia. Pain that leads to a sedentary lifestyle can increase your risk for a multitude of chronic illnesses, including heart disease, diabetes, and obesity.
So stop putting up with chronic pain and start living again. To schedule an appointment with one of our providers, call one of our four convenient locations in New Jersey, or book a telehealth visit or regular visit online today.