Common Questions About Injections for Pain Management

If you’re living with chronic pain, injections can play an important role in your management plan. With physical therapy and other non-invasive procedures, injections may help you avoid surgery. If your doctor recommends that you consider pain management injections, you’re likely to have some questions about what to expect. Here is what you need to know.

What are pain management injections?

Pain management injections include a numbing agent that works in the short term, along with an anti-inflammatory medicine that provides long-term relief. The location of the injection depends on the source of your pain, but may be in a muscle, joint, or epidural space. These injections can typically be administered two to three times per year to manage your symptoms. Often, pain management injections are used in conjunction with other treatments for pain, such as physical therapy and chiropractor care.

Who is a good candidate for pain management injections?

Injections can be used to both diagnose and treat pain. For diagnostic purposes, an injection may be administered to see if it provides any pain relief. This gives the physician information about the cause of the pain. When a diagnosis has been made, anyone suffering from chronic pain that can be controlled through injections is a good candidate. Your provider can discuss your treatment plan options with you, so you can determine if injections are right for you.

What are the benefits of pain management injections?

The biggest benefit of injections is that they often allow people who are suffering from pain that interferes with their everyday lives find relief and resume their normal activities. Because of the long-acting nature of the anti-inflammatory in the injections, this relief can last for an extended period of time and even be maintained through repeated injections. Pain management injections may also help people avoid the need for surgery.

The Houston Spine & Rehabilitation Centers offers pain management injections alongside our other therapies to help patients get relief from chronic pain. For chiropractic care, physical therapy, and other inflammation treatment in The Woodlands, please call (281) 297-8105.