What is Pain Management and What to Expect?
A pain management specialist is a physician with special training in evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment of all different types of pain. Pain is actually a wide spectrum of disorders including acute pain, chronic pain and cancer pain and sometimes a combination of these. Pain can also arise for many different reasons such as surgery, injury, nerve damage, and metabolic problems such as diabetes. Occasionally, pain can even be the problem all by itself, without any obvious cause at all.
As the field of medicine learns more about the complexities of pain, it has become more important to have physicians with specialized knowledge and skills to treat these conditions. An in-depth knowledge of the physiology of pain, the ability to evaluate patients with complicated pain problems, understanding of specialized tests for diagnosing painful conditions, appropriate prescribing of medications to varying pain problems, and skills to perform procedures (such as nerve blocks, spinal injections and other interventional techniques) are all part of what a pain management specialist uses to treat pain. In addition, the broad variety of treatments available to treat pain is growing rapidly and with increasing complexity. With an increasing number of new and complex drugs, techniques, and technologies becoming available every year for the treatment of pain, the pain management physician is uniquely trained to use this new knowledge safely and effectively to help his or her patients. Finally, the pain management specialist plays an important role in coordinating additional care such as physical therapy, psychological therapy, and rehabilitation programs in order to offer patients a comprehensive treatment plan with a multidisciplinary approach to the treatment of their pain.
Many types of chronic pain may require a complex treatment plan, as well as specialized interventional techniques. The physicians at NGPC specialize in Pain Management and are Board Certified in Pain Management by The American Board of Pain Medicine and/or the American Board of Anesthesiology. All of our physicians are Board Certified in Anesthesiology by the American Board of Anesthesiology as well.
North Georgia Pain Clinic is a referral-based practice. The best way to be referred is through your primary care physician, as well as by specialists who deal with different types of pain problems. Back surgeons, neurologists, cancer doctors, as well as other specialists can refer you.