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Non-Surgical Treatments
Home Exercise Program
At some point, your doctor will transition you into doing back pain exercises by developing a home exercise program for you. Depending on the severity of the injury and the extent of damage to your tissues, this may start very soon or occur later in treatment.
It will not be started until the doctor feels that it is safe for you to do some unsupervised exercise. Back pain exercises that increase your flexibility, strength, and balance are a natural progression to giving you an independent life. However, strength and flexibility gains made during these activities may be quickly lost if the exercises are not maintained.
Home exercise is good for general health, maintaining strength and flexibility, and may help prevent injury and future bouts of back pain or neck pain. Patients with back pain or neck pain should focus on strengthening while increasing flexibility with muscles in the back, abdomen, and shoulder regions.
Exercises include walking, swimming, stepping, and working with handheld weights, bands or balls. As with any exercise, program compliance is key. It’s much easier to learn to exercise but much harder to ensure you keep doing them.
Medications
Medications are almost always part of each treatment regimen for acute and chronic pain and may be combined with physical therapy and/or chiropractic care.
Your physician may prescribe one or more various types of medications to treat a variety of conditions including acute pain, chronic pain, herniated disc, disc degeneration, whiplash, facet and sacroiliac joint pain, stenosis, and spondylolisthesis.
The medications may be taken orally or possibly injected. Often, back pain medication use in combined with physical therapy and/or chiropractic care.
Medications are almost always part of each treatment regimen for acute and chronic pain. Your physician will select the correct medication mix based on your individual’s needs.
Various Medications
- Over the counter, medications are readily available and frequently effective in mild to moderate pain.
- Multiple nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are available to reduce inflammation but can also reduce pain.
- Muscle relaxants medication can reduce the painful symptoms while healing and allow treatment to occur.
- Opiate pain medications must be used with great care and supervision.
- Corticosteroid compounds can be delivered orally or by injection when anti-inflammatory drugs are not enough.
- Anticonvulsants have been shown recently to be effective for nerve and neuropathic pain.
- For persistent pain, steroids may be injected directly into a specific area of the spine to facilitate healing.
