Joint and Back Pain
Millions of Americans experience debilitating back and joint pain each year. While medication may mask chronic pain, treating the root cause can help repair the source of musculoskeletal damage.
Suffering from Debilitating Back Pain? You’re Not Alone.
More than 80% of Americans will experience back pain at some point in their lives. In fact, back pain is one of the most common reasons for missed workdays. While most chronic back pain is not caused by degenerative diseases, cancer, or spinal fractures, your everyday activities can increase your risk of developing these conditions in the future.
What Causes Back Pain?
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- Sitting for long periods of time without proper posture and/or taking activity breaks
- Lifting heavy or awkward items improperly or without support
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- Lack of regular stretching and strengthening that leads to an imbalance and causes the back muscles to tense
- Pregnancy, childbirth, and carrying young children
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- Lumbar disc degeneration that can lead to inflammation and further degeneration of the lumbar vertebrae that support the spine
- Twisting in an awkward position
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Other Possible Back Pain Causes
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Herniated disc
You have 33 bony vertebrae in your spine that stabilize and support your back. In between each vertebra sits a disc that provides cushion and slight flexibility. As you age, the outer shell of these discs can break down, causing the softer center to push through and aggravate nearby nerves.
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Spinal stenosis
Spinal stenosis occurs when the spaces between your spine, called the spinal canal, start to narrow. Over time, this tightening effect can compress the nerves in your spinal cord and irritate surrounding nerves.
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Nerve compression
Many degenerative conditions and injuries can compress the nerves in your back, leading to widespread pain, numbness, and tingling in the extremities. Muscle spasms, herniated discs, and spinal stenosis can all cause a chronic pain condition called sciatica.
No matter the source of your back pain, Dr. Ocasio can help reduce your discomfort and get you on the road to recovery.
Joint pain doesn’t always mean you need a joint replacement.
Back and joint pain often go hand and hand. Like back pain, conditions that affect the joints can lead to chronic pain, stiffness, swelling, and low range of motion. Without early intervention, joint pain can even diminish your mobility.
Wondering how to treat newly arisen or chronic joint pain? Patients of all ages come to our practice seeking relief from joint pain.
Joint pain comes in many forms. You may have developed it as the result of an injury, or maybe your joint pain comes from long-term neuromuscular stress or repetitive motion. However your joint pain originated, it’s important to address and treat the problem early, no matter what your age.
What Causes Joint Pain?
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Osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis is the most common type of arthritis, an inflammatory condition that causes chronic joint pain. This “wear and tear” type of arthritis happens when the protective tissue, or cartilage, surrounding your joints starts to deteriorate.
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Rheumatoid Arthritis
Unlike osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease. It occurs when the lining inside your joints becomes inflamed.
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Psoriatic Arthritis
Psoriatic arthritis is a painful form of joint inflammation that often develops in individuals with the autoimmune skin disease psoriasis.
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Sprains and Strains
Sprains and strains affect the tissues that support and stabilize your joints. Damage to these tissues can lead to chronic joint pain and swelling.
Contact Our Pain Management Clinic For Relief Today
Whether you have pain in your back, fingers, hands, wrists, elbows, arms, shoulders, toes, feet, ankles, knees, hips, back, or neck, North Shore Headache and Spine has the most effective treatments to alleviate your discomfort and restore your quality of life. Contact our office today to start your journey towards recovery.
Why Choose North Shore Headache and Spine?
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INNOVATIVE TREATMENTS &
REGENERATIVE MEDICINE
With our in-office diagnostic imaging, dozens of innovative treatments, and full regenerative medicine service offerings, we are able to examine, diagnose, and treat patients experiencing chronic pain all under one roof.
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Long-Term
Integrative Philosophy
Instead of masking symptoms with a quick-fix approach, we focus on every lifestyle aspect to determine the root causes of pain and develop non-narcotic solutions.
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Deeply-Committed
Relationships
Our team values each and every one of our patients. We understand the toll that chronic pain takes on your physical and mental health, and we’re committed to listening to your concerns and creating the right treatent plan for you.
Pain Management Treatment Options
North Shore Headache and Spine offers the latest modalities for back and joint pain treatment, including, but not limited to:
PRP
Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) utilizes your body’s natural healing abilities to repair hard and soft tissue damage. PRP concentrates parts of your blood that contain healing growth factors. By running your blood through a centrifuge, we can isolate these restorative substances and inject it back into your tissues to promote healing.
STEM CELL
Adding mesenchymal stem cells to your regenerative treatment can accelerate your recovery. Dr. Ocasio removes these stem cells directly from your own bone marrow and injects them back into your body along with bone marrow centrate which is rich in growth factors and cytokines that can help reduce inflammation and aid in regeneration.
Intracept Basivertebral Nerve Ablation
The Intracept Procedure is a minimally invasive treatment that targets the basivertebral nerve, which is often responsible for lower back pain.
Central and Peripheral Stimulation
Central and peripheral nerve stimulation involves using electric devices to disrupt pain signals from damaged nerves.
Nerve Blocks
A nerve block delivers a combination of medication and an anesthetic directly into the space surrounding a damaged nerve to quickly relieve pain.
JOINT FUSION
Joint fusion surgery is a minimally invasive procedure that involves removing damaged cartilage and fusing the connecting bones to prevent inflammation-causing friction.
Epidural, Steroid, and Trigger Point Injections
Steroid injections, including epidurals and trigger point injections, introduce anti-inflammatory medications into your area of pain to simultaneously alleviate chronic pain and treat inflammation.
Radio Frequency, Cryoneuroablation, and Nerve Ablation
Radiofrequency ablation is a minimally invasive treatment in which heat is applied directly to a dysfunctional nerve, while cryoneurolysis uses extremely cold temperatures to stop pain signals at the source. Nerve ablation involves destroying or removing damaged nerve tissue.