What Is A Pain Doctor?
If you suffer from chronic, long-lasting pain, visiting a specialized pain doctor could help you find targeted relief for your pain.According to writings dating back to ancient history, symptoms of pain and discomfort have always plagued mankind. These writings give an indication of how much humans have suffered from pain over the years, and continue to do so. Pain doctors help with the management of pain that affect so many.
These types of doctors have undergone specialized training in the assessment, treatment, and management of pain conditions. Pain doctors are highly skilled in using a variety of treatment interventions in order to reduce or even completely eliminate symptoms of pain directly at their source. This article provides an overview on the role of a pain doctor. It will briefly:
- Define what specifies an interventional pain doctor
- Review the training required to become a pain doctor
- Explain what types of care these specialists are able to provide
Finally, this article will also outline the various methods used by pain doctors for treating and managing pain, including:
- Physical therapy
- Chiropractic care
- Heat or ice therapy
- Oral pain medications
- Analgesic injections
- Nerve blocks
What is pain?
Pain itself is quite difficult to describe. Describing what makes these symptoms so unpleasant can also be difficult. This is because symptoms of pain and discomfort vary widely. The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as:
“An unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage.”
Humans likely have greater intense reactions to pain sensations than do other animals because they are impacted by psychological, behavioral, and emotional responses as well. It is not surprising to many that sometimes the individual’s symptoms of pain do not match the degree of tissue damage or the severity of the injury. Sometimes, even the smallest surface wound, such as a shallow cut or abrasion on the skin, can lead to very intense sensations of excruciating pain.
Moreover, symptoms of pain and discomfort are quite subjective and children learn how to communicate about their symptom of discomfort at a very early age. Some have suggested that these early experiences may even shape the way that an individual experiences pain later in life.
The individual’s experience of pain is particularly crucial, as symptoms of pain and discomfort are most often reported as the reason for seeking treatment in the first place. These symptoms are often the only indication of an underlying problem, therefore providing motivation for the individual to make an appointment with their physician to find out the cause of their symptoms.
There are times, however, when pain signals are faulty. This occurs when the pain signal alarms continue to go off even when there is no serious underlying condition to treat. What’s worse is that these signals may continue for so long that they become debilitating and begin to interfere with the individual’s quality of life.
What Does A Pain Doctor Do?
Individuals who are suffering from symptoms of debilitating or refractory pain are encouraged to visit with their primary health care provider, as a referral to a pain doctor may be warranted.Allopathic medicine is a rapidly growing field. Indeed, it is nearly as vast and complex as the human body itself. Because of this, it i