A pain clinic basically offers services that will help you manage your chronic pain. With the therapies offered at these clinics, you will be able to carry on with your life normally without having to be bogged down by debilitating pain. When you visit a pain clinic, do not expect to find a general pain therapy service. Each plan is developed on a case by case basis. What may work for one person may not work on another, even if they are both suffering from the same ailment.
Assessment Services at a Pain Clinic
At a pain clinic, the first step is an assessment done on your source of pain. With this assessment, you can know the real cause of your pain. The assessment is not just physical but psychological too. The doctor clinician will go through a series of tests that may include range of motion tests, spot sensitivity tests to light or touch and a medical history assessment. With this assessment, the right course of treatment can be drawn.
Consultation Services
At a pain clinic, you can get consultation services. This is especially important if you are a getting treatment for the first time. It is also essential if you are looking for a second opinion or searching for an alternative treatment. The consultant will be able to recommend the best course of action that you can follow as part of your pain management therapy.
Treatment Services at a Pain Clinic
There are many treatment plans that can be followed at a pain clinic. The treatment plan that you take on is developed to suit your individual needs and is not a blanket plan that covers everyone. There are many different therapies possible under a treatment plan.
Medication is offered to help manage the pain. The pain killers are of different types and have different strengths of pain relief depending on the scale of pain experience. Nerve blocking medications may be used to stifle pain that come from a group of nerves while injections can be injected around nerves or into joints and muscles so as to reduce swelling, irritation and spasm. Electrical stimulation can be used to manage chronic pain. This therapy includes the use of acupuncture in the relief of pain. Other therapies include counseling, surgery, physical and aquatic therapy and use of relaxation techniques.
Counseling and Psychological Support Services
Although pain may manifest itself on the physical body, sometimes it is caused by emotional and psychological problems. At the pain clinic, you can get counseling services that will enable you to deal with these issues that are causing you pain. A critical assessment is therefore essential to be able to determine the exact cause of the pain.
When looking for a pain management clinic, it is important to pick one based on the services that it can provide to you. If you get into a treatment plan that is suitable from the beginning, you will avoid frustrations that come with an ill suited treatment plan. This is why the choice of a pain clinic should be arrived at after keen consideration and adequate research.