The New Non-Surgical Back Pain Treatment
We’ve been treating back pain in our San Antonio spine clinic for several years now, and one thing is for certain: chronic back pain is incredibly common and due to the failure of the typical treatments, a large number of people are living in pain needlessly.
The most commonly utilized treatments for chronic back pain have a poor success rate statisitically, but new treatment methods are now providing relief for even back pain sufferers who have suffered for many years.
One of the most dramatic back pain breakthroughs we’ve seen in our San Antonio, Texas office is spinal decompression. Spinal decompression is a technologically advanced form of spinal traction that reduces spinal disc bulging, enhances disc hydration and nutrition, and mobilizes spinal joints and connective tissue. For properly-selected patients, the results are often nothing short of amazing.
Unfortunately, brand cialis for sale spinal decompression continues to be underutilized as a back pain treatment for a couple of reasons. The early marketing for spinal decompression was often hype-filled and factually inaccurate, leading to a certain level of distrust among patients and doctors alike. Although decompression has statistically proven to be the most successful treatment for most serious types of back pain, the early marketing for it promoted it as a panacea for all back pain sufferers. Spinal decompression does enjoy an excellent success rate, but it is not effective in every patient and it is simply not appropriate for every back pain sufferer.
Another reason that spinal decompression continues to be underutilized for treating back pain is due to the usual challenges that all new health care procedures face in the United States.
The problem is that insurance companies refuse coverage for medical procedures price cialis that don’t have an established procedure code. The American Medical Association produces the codes, but won’t add a new code until a decent number of doctors are using the new procedure. Doctors won’t invest in the equipment and/or training to use the new procedure if it’s not covered by insurance (because they will have a hard time getting paid for it). This brings us back to the insurance companies not covering the new procedure because there’s no code for it. Because of this system, it usually takes several years for any new treatment to be widely used, no matter how beneficial it may be.
Because of the lack of insurance coverage for spinal decompression, many of the back pain patients we consult with at our san antonio spinal decompression clinic will opt to first buy Januvia online pursue other treatment modalities that are covered by their insurance. Sadly, many of these patients go for months or years in pain, spending many thousands of dollars in insurance co-pays and deductibles on the standard back pain treatments without any results to show for it.
Some of these back pain sufferers eventually undergo surgery hoping for a cure for their symptoms. About half of the patients who do seek a surgical treatment for their back pain find out that the surgery either does not help or makes things worse.
Although spinal decompression is not effective in every case, it does get good to excellent results for the vast majority of back pain patients. Some patients we’ve consulted with have opted to go the surgery route because they think it will be less expensive due to it being covered by insurance, but most back surgeries wind up being more expensive to the patient than spinal decompression.
Many back pain patients don’t realize in advance that the co-payments for a high-priced medical procedure like back surgery will usually run several thousand dollars. With no insurance coverage at all, spinal decompression typically costs the patient less out of pocket than an average back surgery (if they are paying an insurance co-payment of 10% or more), and a lot less than a complicated back surgery.
For the majority of people suffering from serious back pain, spinal decompression is statistically the most effective treatment available and in the long-run is usually the most cost-effective treatment available.
Dr. Michael Golab, D.C. and Dr. Ronald Fielden, D.C. are the treating doctors at South Texas Non Surgical Spinal Center. Visit their website for more about spinal decompression and their San Antonio back pain treatment program.
Posted under Back Pain Remedy
This post was written by admin on February 23, 2010
Spinal Decompression
Spinal decompression is an advanced form of spinal traction used in the treatment of disc-related back pain and related conditions such as sciatica. The primary difference between true spinal decompression and traction (and inversion) machines is that spinal decompression machines are set up to “trick” the spinal muscles into staying relaxed during treatment, allowing for greater changes in disc pressure than with regular traction, which has to fight the resistance of the muscles. Spinal decompression treatment provides excellent results for many people, but some fail to get any improvement at all, and others may even feel worse. I will attempt to explain the most common reasons for these treatment failures, and give suggestions for how to know when spinal decompression is and is not likely to help you.
I have been using spinal decompression in San Antonio for a few years now, and while it is a highly effective treatment for many people, it is not for everyone. Unfortunately, the costs of providing spinal decompression services sometimes influences doctors to recommend it in cases where it may not be entirely appropriate. Even with proper patient selection, spinal decompression is not 100% effective – no treatment is. But when doctors are not as discriminating as they need to be in what patients they accept, the results can be far from ideal and some patients may even get worse with this form of treatment when doctors prescribe it inappropriately for financial reasons.
From my experiences in my San Antonio practice, the patients who get the best results with spinal decompression are those with one or more bulging/herniated discs and patients with mild to moderate disc degeneration. Patients who have previously undergone disc surgery are somewhat more complicated, but most still get good results when they meet the selection criteria (no metal implantation in the spine, no spinal instability, and no impaired healing at the site of surgery). The vast majority of people who meet these criteria get very good results and are usually able to return to their normal activities without any significant pain.
Although complete disc ruptures (disc extrusions) may sometimes be helped with spinal decompression, my experience has been that people with true disc ruptures (the term “rupture” is often used incorrectly even by doctors to describe disc bulges and herniations - actual disc ruptures are relatively rare) do not tend to get good results.
Besides the obvious importance of only using spinal decompression in cases where it is really appropriate, it is very important for the machine operator to be well-trained to ensure proper set-up of the machine for the patient. There are several different decompression machines on the market, each with their own specific set-up procedures. Whatever machine is being used, it is critical to have ongoing refresher training for the operating technicians to be sure that all patients are being set up on the machine exactly right. While the better machines are unlikely to produce any major injury if they are not set up exactly right, results can suffer tremendously if the patient is not positioned and secured on the machine correctly on every visit. I highly suggest asking any spinal decompression provider how frequently the technicians undergo training and only work with those providers who do re-training at a minimum of every 3 months.
One other consideration is the fact that some patients are not good candidates for spinal decompression treatment because of their inability or unwillingness to follow the recommended treatment protocol. In my experience, the primary reasons why a patient can’t or won’t follow the treatment recommendations are usually related to money and/or time.
A full spinal decompression treatment program that includes spinal decompression and other adjunctive treatments can seem somewhat expensive. In actuality, it is a much lower-cost treatment option than surgery for most people and has a statistically much higher success rate, so it can be a very good value, but nonetheless, some people try to cut down their costs by trying to cut down the amount of treatment. This can be a big mistake. In my San Antonio office, most people who complete the recommended treatment plan get lasting relief and can safely return to their normal activities. Those who discontinue care prematurely will often relapse, and may suffer worse pain and worse cialis without prescription damage to the disc because they resume excessively exertive activities before the disc has stabilized.
Of course, some people fail to follow treatment recommendations primarily because they have busy lives and are unwilling to spend the time on getting better. This type of patient tends to miss a lot of appointments and may go long periods of time between treatment sessions. Unfortunately, the success of spinal decompression usually depends on getting the recommended amount of treatment at the recommended frequency of treatments. The effectiveness and results are not as good when people don’t make time for their appointments. What some busy people fail to realize is that if they don’t set aside time to properly deal with their health problem, cialis generic reviews sooner or later that health problem will deteriorate to the point where it forces them to make time to get treatment, and this often occurs when they are at their busiest and buy Sinequan online treatment is least convenient. It is my recommendation to invest the necessary time in getting better, rather than do the treatment intermittently and not get the best results.
In summary, spinal decompression is a very effective means of treating the pain and disability associated with herniated and degenerated spinal discs, but there are some important factors in getting maximum results. Doctors and patients alike are responsible for making sure the treament is done properly to get maximum results.
Dr. George Best has been providing spinal decompression in San Antonio, Texas since 2006 with the DRX9000 system. For additional infomation, visit his website at www.spinesanantonio.com.
Posted under Miscellaneous Content
This post was written by admin on June 21, 2009
