When to Seek Interventional Pain Management for an Injury: Advice from Dr. Brandon Claflin

By Cadrin Arsene

Chronic pain isn’t just painful; it can affect every major aspect of a person’s life. When a person experiences a high level of pain on a daily to almost daily basis, their social, emotional, and mental health can also be impacted. 

Many times, pain comes from an injury or surgery or as the result of progressive illnesses like arthritis. Working with the right medical professionals can help you find relief, but many people who suffer from chronic pain fail to realize that they may need the care of an interventional pain management professional. 

If you’ve been dealing with chronic pain as the result of an injury, Dr. Brandon Claflin of Oklahoma Interventional Spine & Pain recommends contacting a pain management doctor to talk about how to find relief. Here, he discusses why pain may persist after an injury and how interventional pain management techniques can help. 

What Happens After an Injury

Injuries can happen to anyone, even if you aren’t involved in athletic activities or sports. Vehicle collisions, slip and falls, sprains, and strains can happen to anyone. After an injury, the body’s initial response is inflammation. Inflammation is important to help a body heal. 

Inflammation is part of the body’s healing response. Essentially, the body is sending in the troops to heal damaged tissue, support the area that is injured, and help you recover. Sometimes, however, inflammation can last long after the injury is healed. This type of chronic inflammation then becomes painful and can actually interfere with the full healing process. This is why you’ll always be instructed to take measures (like ice and elevation) to reduce swelling.

Post-injury, as you begin to engage in rehabilitation exercises, it can be common to continue to experience pain. However, if your pain persists for a long period of time (longer than two weeks), you may benefit from seeking interventional pain management.

When to Seek Interventional Pain Management

It can be hard to determine when to transfer your care to a pain management specialist. Here are three signs it could be time to contact a pain management doctor.

1. Your pain interferes with your daily life.

If your pain is so severe that it prevents you from being able to care for yourself or perform light-duty activities, you may need pain management. Pain that happens when you breathe, walk, or attempt to feed or clothe yourself is pain that is directly impacting your quality of life. It may need to be addressed by pain management specialists.

2. Your pain has persisted for longer than two weeks.

For some injuries, pain can be severe and long-lasting. However, for minor injuries, pain that lasts longer than two weeks might require additional investigations. Both a pain management specialist and your current provider can work together to discover if there is another cause for your pain. If other reasons have been ruled out, seeking a pain management specialist could be the next step.

3. Your current provider has referred you to pain management.

At some point, your current provider may refer you to pain management to help you deal with your pain. Pain management specialists have access to other care options to help mitigate pain than primary care physicians, which can be beneficial in helping you get relief. 

How Interventional Pain Management Helps

Getting you back to a place where you can enjoy a better quality of life and experience less pain are the goals of pain management. Interventional pain management techniques can include:

• Nerve studies. These studies can help pinpoint the exact nerves that are causing your pain so your doctor can hone in on treating them and eliminating the associated pain.

• Radiofrequency ablation. This process involves the use of radio waves to disrupt the communication between nerves that are causing you pain and the signals they send to your brain.

• Epidural steroid injections. These injections are targeted toward specific areas and can help reduce inflammation and block the communication between nerves that cause pain and your brain. 

These methods can help address the pain you are experiencing and help you recover from your pain faster. You’ll have the opportunity to become more independent and regain the quality of life you need, which can lead to a greater feeling of self-confidence. 

The Help You Need

No matter what kind of injury you’ve had, it’s always a great idea to seek the help of a pain management specialist, especially if you’ve been told the only solution for your pain is surgery. Although surgery may be necessary, it isn’t always the case. Interventional pain management may help you recover from your injury and experience less pain without invasive measures.