I heard something that was very interesting. One insurance company tried this: patients were required to see a physiatrist (a medical doctor who specializes in rehabilitative medicine) prior to seeing a spinal surgeon. The number of spinal operations done was dramatically reduced. Why is that? When surgeons see a problem, they have been trained to fix it with operations. Because of this, their primary treatment recommendation is often times surgery, even before other more conservative treatment options have not been utilized. Given the poor outcomes with most spinal operations for back pain, it is no wonder that when a patient sees a non-operative specialist first, the whole population did better.
Physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R), also known as physiatry or rehabilitation medicine, is a specialty of medicine that focuses on finding the proper diagnosis and then works to restore and maintain functional ability and quality of life.
At Monmouth Pain and Rehabilitation, our highly trained and experienced medical doctors will first find the cause of the problem with advanced diagnostic procedures. Once the problem is understood, the appropriate treatment plan will be created to fix the problem.
Oral pain medications are NOT a typical approach taken by our team. Once the proper diagnosis is established, treatment recommendations can include a wide range of active and passive rehabilitative techniques. This may include injection therapy to precisely and specifically reduce inflammation and pain at the site of the problem. Also, our team utilizes rehabilitative techniques like acupuncture that improves circulation around the site of pain. Physical therapy and chiropractic may be used to improve structure and function. Our nutrition and diet department works in a variety of ways from weight loss to anti-inflammatory diet prescriptions.
Other cutting edge rehabilitative treatments include laser therapy with the powerful K-Laser™. The K-Laser works to reduce swelling and inflammation with laser light therapy that penetrates deeply and safely into the body to the site of injury and pain. Vibration therapy works by utilizing the concept of gentle muscle movement to improve circulation in and around the site of pain. At Monmouth Pain and Rehabilitation laser therapy and vibration therapy are treatments that are used each day in our rehabilitation department.
Spinal decompression traction is utilized with amazing results to remove pressure from nerves. Many times pressure on nerves comes from compression or pressure from abnormal disc or bone alignment. Spinal decompression traction and gently remove that pressure for long lasting results without surgery.
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