Pain Management Physician
What is a Pain Management Physician?
A pain management physician is also known as a pain doctor or pain specialist. This healthcare speciality is a medical professional who specializes in evaluating, diagnosing, treating, and preventing pain. They can be a certified orofacial pain specialist (OFP), medical doctors of osteopathy (D.O.s) who are board-certified in a pain specialty, such as cancer pain or sport injuries. In this case, the speciality focuses on facial pain.
They are also known as a “pain doctor,” a “pain specialist,” or “pain management specialist.” Pain management doctors have specialized training to evaluate, diagnose, treat, and prevent many different types of pain. Who you seek for help will depend in part on where you have pain and what type of pain is on-going.
Whatever the term used, their goal is always to reduce the pain a person experiences.
What Does a Pain Management Physician Do?
Pain management doctors diagnose, treat, and manage chronic pain patients using advanced therapies. This ranges from medication to interventional procedures, to self-care education. Pain management providers offer personalized care.
They do more than just provide palliative care for the pain, such as medicines.
Orofacial pain (OFP) specialists are board-certified dentists who diagnose, manage, and treat pain disorders in the jaw, mouth, face, head, and neck. They often start as general dentists. However, they are different because they don’t treat typical dental conditions like cavities or infections. Instead, they have additional training and certification that focuses on non-dental pains.
What Head and Neck Conditions Does a Pain Management Physician Treat?
- Headache disorders
- Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorders
- Muscle pain
- Jaw and facial movement and mobility disorders
- facial nerve pain
Medical Pain Management
Medical management for pain often includes a wide range of approaches based on a person’s preferences, a doctor’s expertise, and other factors, such as the location of the pain and underlying condition. Our Minnesota Head and Neck Pain Clinics rely on evidenced-based pain treatment.
Medical management often includes medications that need careful monitoring. Pain management physicians are typically knowledgeable about the use of opioids for pain management. These powerful pain medications can have many side effects and be habit-forming, leading to misuse. For this reason, a person should work with and follow a pain management doctor’s advice on how much and when to take the medications.
When do I Need a Pain Management Physician?
It is best to consider seeing a pain management physician if you experience pain that:
- Persists: Pain that lasts longer than a few weeks or reoccurs despite self-treatment measures like over-the-counter pain medication, heat or ice to alleviate pain, and rest. Pain is traditionally considered chronic if it lasts for more than three months.
- Is severe: Pain that inhibits with your daily activities, sleep, or quality of life. For example, if you’re unable to exercise like usual, focus at work, or participate in activities as you once did, or if you’re unable to get a good night’s sleep. Your pain severity level should be assessed.
- Is unexplained: Pain with no obvious cause, or pain that follows you everywhere.
- Changes: Pain that increases in intensity or frequency, or pain that gets worse instead of better.
- Impacts you in noticable ways: Pain that affects your mood and mental wellbeing, or that pain that contributes to stress, anxiety, or depression. Pain can also cause other health issues, such as making it impossible to relax.
You might also want to see a pain management physician if your primary doctor, orthopedist, or surgeon has run out of options, or if no one has identified the source of your pain. Look for a Twin Cities Pain Clinic nearest you.
Signals Indicating its Time to See a Pain Management Physician
1. When your pain persists during a specific motion
If this sounds like something you can relate to, then visiting one of our board-certified pain management doctors could be exactly what you need. One of the first steps we’ll take is to try to pinpoint the location where the pain is originating, using such methods as pain mapping or selective nerve-root blocking. Once we gather enough information about what’s happening inside your body, we can develop a customized course of treatment to relieve you of your pain.
2. If day-to-day movements become increasingly challenging
When pain decreases over time naturally you may be okay. However, if your pain isn’t decreasing, then visit one a pain management center near yuu. It’s not uncommon for an injury to debilitate normal range of motion for a period of time. Long-term debilitating pain that prevents you from performing day-to-day activities and requires extra effort is not normal and should be looked at. Learn more if your pain generates from headaches or you have neuropathic pain.
3. Radiating pain or strange sensations
When pain begins to radiate or throb in a certain area of your face or body, it’s a sign you should see a pain management specialist. Additionally look for numbness and tingling that may signify potential serious issues. These disturbing sensations could indicate where a neck or jaw nerve may be pinched, allowing our team to develop a pain management treatment plan to ease you of this discomfort.
4. Someone suspects you’ve grown dependent on medication
Not everyone recognizes when they become dependent on medications to manage their pain. Some successfully manage their pain on their own, through prescription medication. However, this dependency has gone too far if you need it to get through your day. The side effects of such dependencies could cause even further damage to your body and quality of life.
5. When you fail to get a good night’s sleep
Pain varies by degrees; each person’s perspective on pain and tolerance for it has to be factored in. Any type of pain that prevents you from sleeping well may be classified as severe. A lack of sleep can inhibit healing and have a domino effect on your health.
Summary
Pain management doctors are ideal providers to help a person gain relief to pain. Our expert pain medicine specialists are certified in helping adults and children with a wide range of painful disorders. We listen to your concerns and develop a pain treatment plan for you to make sure you get the right therapy when you need it. Our team approach typically means that your test results are available quickly and appointments are scheduled in coordination.
