El Paso Functional Medicine
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Pain Management Center

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About Pain Management (Medicine) Specialists

A pain medicine specialist is a medical or osteopathic doctor who treats pain due to disease, ailment, or injury. Many of these doctors are physiatrists or anesthesiologists although called interventional pain management specialists or pain medicine. Pain medicine is a mutlidisciplinary team effort generally affecting specialists in other disciplines, complimentary alternative medicine, along with radiology, psychiatry, psychology, oncology, nursing, physical therapy, and the patient’s primary care physician or other treating doctor.

 

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Education & Training

After graduating medical school and completing a one-year internship, the physician enters a residency program normally in physical or anesthesiology medicine but sometimes from other fields like psychiatry and neurology. Upon conclusion of a residency program (typically 3 years long), the physician completes a one-year fellowship for advanced training in pain medicine.

Many pain medicine specialists are board certified. The organizations that board certify physiatrists, anesthesiologists, neurologists, and psychiatrists all collaborate to provide the board examination for the subspecialty of Pain Medicine. You can find numerous opportunities for pain management specialists to remain current with medical and technical improvements in pain medicine, such as scientific journals and society meetings.

Targets of Pain Management

The goal of pain medicine is to handle severe or long-term pain by reducing intensity and pain frequency. Besides addressing pain problems, a multidisciplinary pain management program may address your functional goals for activities of day-to-day living. Overall, a pain medicine plan aims to give you a feeling of well-being, increase your level of action (including return to work), and reduce or eliminate your reliance on drugs.

Many Kinds of Pain Treated

Pain medicine specialists treat all sorts of pain. Severe pain is described sharp or as acute and may indicate something is wrong. The pain experienced during dental work is an instance of intense pain. Pain lasting 6 months or longer is defined as chronic. This type of pain varies from mild to serious and is consistent. Spinal arthritis (spondylosis) pain is frequently chronic. A good consequence is produced by uniting different treatments regularly although chronic pain is difficult to handle.

  • Degenerative disc disease
  • Facet joint pain
  • Sciatica
  • Cervical and lumbar spinal stenosis
  • Spondylolisthesis
  • Whiplash

What to Anticipate During an Appointment

Your appointment with a pain or interventional pain management practitioner is much like other doctor visits. Although there are many similarities, the focus is fast managing it, and on your pain, the cause or contributing factors.

Pain medicine physicians execute a physical and neurological examination, and review your medical history paying particular focus on pain history. You may be asked many questions about your pain

  • On a scale from zero to 10, with 10 being the worse pain imaginable, speed your pain.
  • When did pain start? When pain started, what were you doing?
  • Does pain disperse into other regions of the body?
  • Is its intensity persistent, or is it worse at different times of night or the day?
  • What really helps to alleviate the pain? Why is pain worse?
  • What treatments have you ever attempted? What worked? What failed?
  • Would you take over the counter drugs, vitamins, or herbal nutritional supplements?
  • Does one take prescription medication? If so, what, how much, and how frequently?

Most pain medicine specialists utilize a standardized drawing of the front/back of the body to let you mark where pain is sensed, as well as indicate pain spread and type (eg, light, sharp). You may be asked to complete the form each time you see with the pain physician. The finished drawing helps you to evaluate your treatment progress.

Accurate Analysis Key to Treatment

Pain medicine includes diagnosing origin or the cause of pain. Making the proper identification may include getting an X ray, CT scan, or MRI study to verify the reason for your neck pr back pain. When treating spine-associated pain (which may include arm or leg symptoms), other tests, like discography, bone scans, nerve studies (electromyography, nerve conduction study), and myelography could possibly be performed. The proper analysis is crucial to some favorable treatment plan.

Some spinal ailments and pain treatment requires involvement of other specialists, such as your primary care physician, neurosurgeon, orthopaedic surgeon, and practitioners in radiology, psychiatry, psychology, oncology, nursing, physical therapy, and complimentary alternative medicine. The pain medicine specialist may consult with and/or refer you to a neurosurgeon or orthopaedic spine surgeon to determine if your pain difficulty necessitates back operation.

 

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Professional Scope of Practice *

The information herein on "Pain Management Center" is not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified health care professional or licensed physician and is not medical advice. We encourage you to make healthcare decisions based on your research and partnership with a qualified healthcare professional.

Blog Information & Scope Discussions

Our information scope is limited to Chiropractic, musculoskeletal, physical medicines, wellness, contributing etiological viscerosomatic disturbances within clinical presentations, associated somatovisceral reflex clinical dynamics, subluxation complexes, sensitive health issues, and/or functional medicine articles, topics, and discussions.

We provide and present clinical collaboration with specialists from various disciplines. Each specialist is governed by their professional scope of practice and their jurisdiction of licensure. We use functional health & wellness protocols to treat and support care for the injuries or disorders of the musculoskeletal system.

Our videos, posts, topics, subjects, and insights cover clinical matters, issues, and topics that relate to and directly or indirectly support our clinical scope of practice.*

Our office has reasonably attempted to provide supportive citations and has identified the relevant research study or studies supporting our posts. We provide copies of supporting research studies available to regulatory boards and the public upon request.

We understand that we cover matters that require an additional explanation of how it may assist in a particular care plan or treatment protocol; therefore, to further discuss the subject matter above, please feel free to ask Dr. Alex Jimenez, DC, or contact us at 915-850-0900.

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Blessings

Dr. Alex Jimenez DC, MSACP, RN*, CCST, IFMCP*, CIFM*, ATN*

email: coach@elpasofunctionalmedicine.com

Licensed as a Doctor of Chiropractic (DC) in Texas & New Mexico*
Texas DC License # TX5807, New Mexico DC License # NM-DC2182

Licensed as a Registered Nurse (RN*) in Florida
Florida License RN License # RN9617241 (Control No. 3558029)
License Compact Status: Multi-State License: Authorized to Practice in 40 States*
Presently Matriculated: ICHS: MSN* FNP (Family Nurse Practitioner Program)

Dr. Alex Jimenez DC, MSACP, RN* CIFM*, IFMCP*, ATN*, CCST
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