Articles

Regenerative Medicine For Pain Relief

The goal of regenerative medicine, also called cellular therapy, is to promote your body's natural ability to heal damaged tissues. In regenerative medicine, your pain management doctor uses your body's cells to replace, regenerate, repair or reboot injured or aged tissues, organs or joints. Regenerative medicine is the most advanced form of treatment you can get.

A variety of growth factors may be used, including those from your own blood, broth factors, or bone marrow aspirate, to promote the natural healing process. In order to accomplish this, your doctor takes bone marrow or other healthy tissues from one part of your body and transplants them into the diseased, degenerated, or injured part. Using this procedure, damaged tissue is rebuilt, pain is relieved, and injuries are healed without the need for medication or surgery.

REGENERATIVE MEDICINE PROCEDURES: WHAT ARE EXAMPLES?

Research continues to uncover new ways to unlock the potential of regenerative medicine. The most common regenerative medicine procedures include:

• Stem cell treatments. This is a popular regenerative therapy in which your doctor harvests stem cells, or unformed cells, from your fat, blood or bone marrow. After purification and concentration, the stem cells are injected into an injured or diseased part of your body.

• Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections. For this regenerative therapy, Dr. Etelzon creates platelet-rich plasma from your blood. Then she injects the concentrated mixture into the injured cartilage, tendon or whatever needs to heal.

• This is a type of regenerative therapy to treat joint and muscle pain. Your doctor injects a saline solution into the injured or degenerated joint or muscle to cause irritation. The ensuing reaction forces your immune system to react to heal the injured joint or muscle.

• Viscous Supplementation. Also referred to as viscosupplementation, this procedure introduces a gel-like component called hyaluronic acid into a joint to serve as a lubricant when osteoarthritis has worn away the pads between your bones. This is a common procedure for treating knee pain.

• Via Disc NP Allograft

Dr. Etelzon uses the most suitable regenerative procedures in her NYC pain management practice. All these treatments are non-operative and minimally invasive.

by Pain Doctors Medical

Vitamin Drop IV Treatment | Brooklyn & Spring Valley NY

Vitamin drop IV treatments are being offered at our Brooklyn and Spring Valley locations. Call to book your appointment.

Brooklyn Office
35 West End Ave PH1,
Brooklyn New York 11235 | Directions
Phone | 718.682.3686

Spring Valley Office
17 Perlman Dr. #201
Spring Valley New York 10977 | Directions
Phone | 844.373.277

by Pain Doctors Medical

Managing Your Chronic Pain: How A Specialized Pain Doctor Can Provide Helpful Relief

Everybody deals with pain at some point in their life on a daily basis. It can upend parts of your life or disrupt your daily routines with the favorite things you do. While many people often deal with acute pain that goes away with some minimal treatment, others have to deal with more persistent chronic pain in their lives. Chronic pain can cause more physical discomfort and affect your quality of life, but there are specialists who can provide the much-needed relief you need. 

At Pain Doctors Medical, board-certified physician Dr. Ilana Etelzon and her team will help you receive compassionate professional pain management care of the highest quality. We offer a unique approach to relieving each of our patient’s pain conditions and utilize interventional techniques to restore function in the body, with minimal use of medications or painkillers. 

If you’re experiencing significant pain on a regular basis, get in touch with us today so that we can start a detailed diagnosis and find the root of your pain condition before offering a solution. Doctors specializing in pain are a unique type of medical professional and we will explain how they can provide assistance for any pain you’re dealing with. 

When Should I Visit A Doctor For Pain?

As soon as possible if the pain is really severe and persistent. It can be tricky sometimes to determine whether your pain is serious or not, but if it’s consistent over a long period of time, a doctor’s visit is recommended. 

One of the best ways to keep track of your pain and when you should visit a doctor is by keeping a pain journal. It tracks how much pain you feel on a given day and provides your doctors better context and communication for your condition. You can also note how often the pain affects you and how it interferes with normal activities such as sleeping, working, or participating in activities. Writing a journal can help you see what may improve your pain (e.g. prayer, meditation, massage, light stretches) or make it worse (e.g. stress, lack of sleep, poor diet, etc). 

Rate your pain on a 0-10 scale in the journal and it can help your doctor spot any recurring patterns for your condition. From 1-3, it can be nagging pain that isn’t much and goes away on its own. From 7-10, this can mean that the pain is so severe that it’s hampering your daily activities. 

Having a detailed journal will help your doctor immensely in finding the right pain management solution for you. Rather than provide short-term fixes for pain, specialized pain doctors want to help you find long-term relief. 

What Is The Difference Between A Pain Management Doctor And A Pain Medicine Doctor?

A pain management doctor is a specialized medical professional who evaluates your pain and helps treat a wide range of issues related to it. Chronic pain ailments can be relieved through advancements in medicine and science. As such, pain management specialists will often adopt unique solutions for each of their patients. This can be done by using modern tools and medicine to lower the intensity of the pain, diagnose the root cause, and offer long-term solutions that you can use as part of your lifestyle. 

On the other hand, a pain medicine doctor is someone who just treats sudden pain problems such as headaches and some types of chronic pain like lower back pain. While their roles are similar to a pain management doctor, pain medicine doctors typically offer a mix of medication-based treatments and procedures to stop any onset of pain. Their assistance is usually short-term and just provides your pain with a quick fix. While these doctors have their uses, a pain management doctor can greatly assist in mitigating any chronic pain you’re dealing with. 

Management strategies should be employed when trying to control and relieve any chronic pain. Using painkillers can only do so much temporarily that you’ll need a viable long-term solution to managing your recurring pain. 

How Can I Manage My Chronic Pain? 

Chronic pain can be managed in a variety of ways and there is no single solution because everyone’s body is different. It may involve multiple disciplines and diverse treatments that can be used to improve the patient’s lifestyle, physical function, and mental well-being. With the right solutions and routine working with a pain management doctor, you can work towards experiencing significant pain reduction in your life. 

Examples of some of the things you can do to manage chronic pain include pacing yourself, staying active, stretching, relaxing, and getting much needed sleep on a daily basis. 

If you want to explore ways to mitigate any chronic pain you’ve been experiencing, contact Pain Doctors Medical at 718-682-3686 to book an appointment and speak with Dr. Etelzon today. Work with our team now to get started on managing your pain more effectively. 

by Pain Doctors Medical

Osteoarthritis Knee Injections | Pain Doctors, New York (Updated 2023)

Osteoarthritis - also known as degenerative joint disease - is the most common variant of arthritis diagnosed among adults in the United States. You could think of joints like machinery; they are liable to wear out over time as they age, just like any mechanical component. Machines that have been rigorously used are likely to wear out faster, and even top of the line machines need service, maintenancing, and replacement parts as they age out and wear down. This same principle applies to our joints.

OA is more common in aging persons, and it can cause significant (and sometimes) debilitating pain. Researchers are tirelessly pursuing better treatment approaches to halt the progression of the disease. The research isn’t quite there yet, but modern approaches do exist to help alleviate some of the worst of OA’s symptoms, including medications, exercises, and even surgery. 

Depending on the severity of your pain, injections are a potential treatment pathway for easing your joint pain helping to restore some of your quality of life. In many cases, we use these injections to try to reduce inflammation and pain in your joints. With certain treatments, you can potentially experience fewer symptoms for several months.

There are several potential injection options to help treat knee pain. These range from corticosteroids, which have been around for decades, to newer therapies like platelet-rich plasma (PRP). Of course, your physician will decide which one is best based on your individual needs based on your medical history, diagnosis, and current health status.

When Should You Consider a Knee Injection?

There are five stages of osteoarthritis, ranging from 0 to 4. The level of pain experienced differs for each stage — with 1 being minor discomfort and four being severe pain. Exercising on your own and changing your diet, as well as integrating physical therapy early may be enough to relieve your symptoms if they are not advanced. If you have attempted these approaches for finding pain relief and your symptoms do not abate, you should consult your doctor about knee injections.

How Often Do You Need Knee Injections?

A corticosteroid injection and hyaluronic acid injection may last a few months. Corticosteroid injections can only be administered once every three to four months. This is due to the fact that they carry a risk of breaking down your cartilage and come with other possible side effects, including high blood pressure, osteoporosis, and skin atrophy. By comparison, hyaluronic acid injections may not work for everyone, and how they’re administered varies depending on the manufacturer. You should consult your doctor to determine the risks and benefits of each injection.

How Do These Knee Osteoarthritis Injections Work?

Normal joint fluid contains a substance called hyaluronan. It acts like a shock absorber and lubricant in your joint and is needed to help the joint work properly. Hyaluronan is highly viscous, allowing the cartilage surfaces of the bones to glide upon each other smoothly. When supplemented via injection, this can assist in lessening the painful symptoms of osteoarthritis.

Schedule an Appointment at The Orthopedic Clinic Today

At Pain Doctors Medical, we want you to live your life to its fullest. If you suffer from osteoarthritis pain and it’s making your life uncomfortable, we want to hear from you. We will tailor a treatment plan that’s best suited to your needs and help get you back to doing what you love. We provide quality orthopedic care and interventional pain management services to patients in and around Brooklyn, New York. 

by Pain Doctors Medical