What Kinds Of Injections Work For Back Pain?

Back pain is no fun. That is the understatement of the century because, as back pain sufferers well know, back pain can be depressing, debilitating and downright defeating. You can’t do the things you enjoy like your Saturday morning tennis match or softball in the park. It’s painful to perform basic tasks like laundry and cooking and most of the time feels as though there is no end to the pain.

The worst thing about back pain is that it never seems to go away, which can only lead to depression, but as a 2005 study found, it can cause back pain to persist much longer that it should. This should highlight the importance of immediate back pain treatment because the longer you allow it to affect your everyday life, the longer it will affect your everyday life. 

Back Pain Treatments

There are plenty of treatments available for back pain, as it is a common problem, but finding the right treatment for you depends on a variety of factors. There are traditional medical treatments that over the counter or prescription pain medications, narcotics and muscle relaxers.

Then there are alternative treatments that have proven highly effective in back pain management such as massage therapy, acupuncture and acupressure. Other methods of treating back pain include physical therapy and chiropractic medicine. Many of these treatments will come at a doctor’s recommendation, however you can also seek holistic treatments out on your own.

If you suffer from chronic back pain you may want to consider a more invasive form of back pain therapy: injections.

Back Pain Injections

While many back pain sufferers may be loath to consider back pain injections as a suitable treatment because they view it as extreme. However there are other–more extreme–methods–of treatment including surgery which has a much longer heal time than simple injections. Many patients turn to injections when other forms of pain therapy have failed.

Why are back pain injections affective?

This is one question that patients always ask and the answer is quite simple. When compared to oral pain medications, injections are superior because they deliver the pain killers directly to the affected area. This means the pain relief begins quicker and lasts longer, compared to the less effective oral administration.

The main ingredient in injections for back pain is usually a steroid because steroids have anti-inflammatory properties and they relieve pain immediately. When taken under the supervision of a competent physician steroids are not at all harmful and have limited negative side effects. If you notice any physical or mental changes once you start injections, inform your physician right away.

One-Two Punch

Using injections to treat back pain is effective, however it is even more effective when combined with another form of therapy such as physical or massage therapy, chiropractic medicine or acupressure. These other forms of therapy will work to keep your muscles relaxed so it is easier to discern the cause and source of the back pain.

Finding The Source

Locating the source of the back pain isn’t as simple as pointing out an area to your doctor because the back is a far more complicated entity than that with 26 different bones and a variety of muscles, discs and ligaments. In many instances the doctor will use a lidocaine injection to determine if the pain originated in the back or elsewhere. Lidocaine is a numbing agent so if it causes pain relief then the source of the pain is certainly the back, not the legs and likely not the sciatic nerve.

A lidocaine injection can help eliminate confusion caused by radiating pain that can indicate the source is elsewhere.

Using injections for back pain can serve a diagnostic purpose as well as a treatment purpose but either way they can be very effective in helping you find a permanent solution to your back pain woes.