Back Pain Specialist

What causes back pain?

Back pain can be due to an acute injury, chronic injuries, disease, or a combination of two or more of these causes.

Acute back pain injuries

Acute injuries cause immediate and often severe back pain and tend to affect your ability to move to some extent. 

This could be because of the severity of the pain when you try to move in a certain way, or because there’s damage to one of the parts of your back that control your range of movement. 

Chronic back pain injuries

Chronic injuries are a result of long-term degeneration of bones and tissues. This is typically due to repeating the same motions over and over again for months and years like the swing golfers make when hitting a ball, or the constant bending over you might do as a keen gardener. 

In addition, poor posture, such as having a permanent slouch or slumping in front of the TV or computer, and sleeping in a bad position, can lead to chronic back pain. It can also be due to having a job where you make the same movements every day.

Disease

Osteoarthritis develops when the protective cartilage between your bones wears away, and osteoporosis causes changes in the bones that make them brittle and more likely to fracture. 

Degenerative disc disease can also occur as you get older when the discs that protect your vertebrae start to get thinner and harder. You could also be born with a back condition such as scoliosis, which means your spine has curves in the wrong places.

Many of these problems are related to one another in some way. For instance, acute back injuries that don’t receive the right treatment can turn into chronic pain problems, or wear and tear damage can build up until the weakness causes an acute injury.

How is back pain treated?

Mild back pain usually improves with the application of gentle heat and a combination of rest and gentle stretches. However, if you have severe back pain, or mild pain doesn’t improve within a few days, it’s best to visit Throgs Neck Multi Care, P.C. to find out what’s wrong.

Initial treatments for back pain might include:

• Pain-killing medication
• Anti-inflammatories
• Heat and cold therapies
• Electrical stimulation
• Ultrasound therapy
• Radiofrequency ablation
• Manipulation therapies
• Trigger point injections
• Epidural steroid injections
• Selective nerve root blocks
• Facet joint injections
• Stem cell therapy

For most patients, these treatments work well and resolve their back pain. However, some people’s back pain doesn’t improve, in which case surgery might be needed. 

What surgeries are there for back pain?

The precise operation you need for back pain depends on the cause, but some of the procedures performed at Throgs Neck Multi Care, P.C. include:

• Laminectomy
• Foraminotomy
• Discectomy
• Spinal fusion
• Artificial disc replacement

If back pain is interfering with your day to day life, get to the root of the problem and find a solution by calling Throgs Neck Multi Care, P.C. today to schedule a consultation, or book an appointment online.