Pain is your body’s way of letting you know something is wrong. Whether the cause is obvious or a mystery, a pain management specialist like Dr. Chidi Uche is specifically trained in the evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment of all types of pain.
Through pain includes a wide range of disorders, there are two main categories:
- Acute Pain
- Chronic Pain
Acute Pain
Acute pain comes on suddenly and can be brief or last for months. In most cases, it does not last longer than 6 months and ceases when the underlying cause has been successfully treated.
It tends to be relatively sharper and more severe than chronic pain. The causes of acute pain can be varied and include surgery, broken bones, dental work, childbirth, and burns or cuts.
There are a wide variety of treatments available for acute pain, and a trained pain management specialist will be able to pinpoint the right one for your situation.
Chronic Pain
Chronic pain is pain that lasts longer than three months. A major problem in the United States, chronic pain disables more people than cancer or heart disease!
Common types of chronic pain include headaches, back pain, joint pain, arthritis, psychogenic pain, pain caused by nerve damage, and cancer pain.
Chronic pain not only has serious impacts on your physical well-being, it can wreak havoc on your emotional and mental well-being.
A pain management specialist will help you determine if a surgical intervention is necessary, or if there are less drastic measures that can effectively treat your pain.
Managing Pain
The first step to managing pain is to make an appointment with a pain management specialist like Dr. Chidi Uche. Your doctor will help you discover the cause of your pain and determine which approach is the most effective way to treat it.
These treatments can include interventional treatments, prescription pain management, or the latest regenerative medicinal procedures, or alternative therapies like medical marijuana.
As doctors and researchers learn more about the complexities of pain, a new world of specialized tests and treatments is becoming available. This has made it more important than ever to work with a pain management specialist.
Only they will be able to tailor the most effective diagnostic tests and treatment procedures to your individual needs.