Pain

Experiencing pain can reduce the quality of your life and your ability to undertake your duties as needed. Further, it interferes with your overall well-being and affects your mental health. You need to seek medical intervention when dealing with pain, especially if it is persistent and prevents you from enjoying your daily life. When looking for a professional, you want to work with a trusted team that understands your specific needs and works towards long-lasting pain relief. Conducting research on your physical therapy options is, therefore, essential.

At Suarez Physical Therapy, you will receive excellent care to facilitate your pain relief, thanks to our highly skilled and experienced professionals. Our patients have trusted us over the years to provide high-quality physical therapy services for pain relief, which is necessary to help you recover and rebuild your health. Our goal is to help any patient seeking physical therapy for pain in Las Vegas, Nevada, with beneficial outcomes.

Determining When to Seek Medical Intervention for Pain

Once in a while, your body may experience pain from different causes that cause temporary discomfort. When this happens, you do not necessarily have to seek alternative solutions to help combat the pain as your body resolves it over time.

However, when pain persists for longer durations, you may need to contact a medical professional to investigate the cause and how to remedy it. Among the most effective ways to determine when to seek medical intervention is to track the duration of your pain.

By having the information ready, you can help the medical professional attending to you make a better case analysis. For example, if you describe the pain as inconsistent, they can run tests to check for any underlying conditions.

In most cases, your first stop will be at a medical doctor’s clinic, as they are general practitioners capable of diagnosing various causes of pain. After the first consultation, they will direct you to professionals like physical therapists with experience in pain management. By understanding the treatment path you will follow, you are more likely to have confidence in the process and in getting a recovery plan. 

Types of Pain

After seeking medical advice for pain, the most important element to establish is which type you are experiencing. There are two main types of pain that patients commonly experience, and your doctor should classify your experience depending on the symptoms you have faced. They are:

Acute Pain

Acute pain is the most commonly experienced form among patients because it arises as a natural response to the infliction of injury. You may also experience acute pain from a medical condition, provided it has not escalated to create additional complications.

Characteristics of acute pain include its short-term effects, meaning you should feel better within a few hours or days, depending on the cause. For example, if you fell off your bicycle and hurt your knee, you would experience acute pain that would likely resolve after a few days. Similarly, injuries from cuts, abrasions, and low to medium impact also cause acute pain.

Upon experiencing acute pain, you do not need to seek medical intervention, provided your injury is not serious. You will notice the pain-reducing over time and fully recovering with proper rest and protection of the injured area.

Nevertheless, some patients may require additional medical attention, including pain medication and checkups, to control the pain effects of the injury. Even so, your condition falls within the acute pain category if it reduces after a few days or weeks.

Chronic Pain

Conversely, chronic pain lasts for a longer duration, resulting in the need for additional medical care. Your doctor will diagnose you with chronic pain if it lasts for more than three months, as it exceeds the expected healing duration.

Like acute pain, chronic pain may arise from various causes, and its severity is the distinguishing factor. Among the reasons why chronic pain lasts longer is that it affects sensitive body parts like the spinal cord. Additionally, you may experience pain due to medical complications resulting from failing to seek medical attention on time.

While some patients have experienced chronic pain consistently since it started, others have only dealt with it a few times. In both cases, your medical professional will classify it as chronic because it has lasted beyond the threshold of three months.

Common Causes of Pain

After establishing the type of pain you are experiencing, you need to identify the possible cause. By doing this, you can better explore options to recover from the pain and avoid recurring instances of the experience.

During your consultation, your doctor will inquire about when the pain started and the events leading to it. Although you do not have to provide all the details, your doctor needs to understand what is triggering the issue continuously, especially for chronic pain.

Some common causes of chronic body pain include:

• Trauma to the Body Causing Injury

Body trauma refers to harm or damage to your skin, muscles, or organs after exposure to impact, cuts, and ingesting harmful contents, among other reasons. It takes various forms, as every patient presents different circumstances.

For example, if you are active in sports, you may experience fractures, body cuts, and muscle strains from falling or colliding with other players. Falling when undertaking everyday tasks also causes body trauma that could lead to chronic pain. For example, falling down a flight of stairs is dangerous and may cause head and spinal injuries.

Although the trauma to the body may not be from high impact, chronic pain can still affect your overall well-being. This is common after your injuries cause internal bleeding and other complications with the gradual emergence of symptoms. 

• Hormonal Imbalance

Additionally, hormonal imbalances may negatively affect your health and cause chronic pain, especially for women. Since multiple hormones are active in the human body to support various body functions, an imbalance may trigger complications, with the main symptom being pain.

For example, hormonal imbalances can affect a woman’s menstrual cycle, resulting in lower back pain, painful cramps, and regular migraines. In some cases, the symptoms persist even after the cycle concludes, resulting in the need for a medical check-up.

Hormonal imbalances may also interfere with processes like digestion, causing the release of more digestive acid in the stomach than necessary. Consequently, the acid may affect the stomach walls and cause severe pain, leading to ulcers and other related conditions.

• Medical Conditions

Patients suffering from medical conditions also commonly report chronic pain, especially if they have a long-running diagnosis. For example, cancer patients report constant pain as their bodies recover from treatments like chemotherapy and radiation therapy.

Moreover, arthritis affects your bones and causes sharp pain until you receive appropriate pain management treatments. Due to this, your legs, arms, and back are constantly in pain, which may affect your comfort levels throughout the day.

Although you may seek treatment, pain becomes persistent, especially in terminal conditions. As a result, you need to find an effective pain management service to help you reduce the impact you experience and make it more manageable.

• Body Infections

Although facing a body infection does not always result in pain, you may experience medical complications from an unidentified condition. As a result, you could face serious health deterioration, including chronic pain.

Some reasons for experiencing pain when suffering from an infection include exposure to sensitive nerves after your flesh begins to change. This is especially common in dental infections like tooth decay, and the pain can spread from your teeth to other body parts.

Therefore, seeking early medical treatment is essential to promote full recovery and prevent bacteria from spreading. If a body part is severely exposed to the infection, it may result in the need for amputation, leading to possible additional chronic pain.

• Muscle Strains

Many cases involving muscle strains arise from high-impact sports and activities. However, you may also strain your muscles from other seemingly low-impact actions, like poor posture. For example, straining your neck over time from adapting a poor posture can cause chronic neck and back pain.

As a result, you need to engage with an experienced professional who can identify your posture as the primary cause of pain and suggest remedies. With this information, you can avoid the pain returning after your treatment concludes.

• Surgical Pain

Your surgeons apply general anesthesia while operating, but it only lasts throughout the process. Afterward, you need to manage pain until your body fully recovers. When your surgical wounds take longer to heal than expected, you must report your chronic pain to your doctor for review and pain management suggestions.

How to Manage Pain Symptoms

Different pain management strategies are available for your consideration, depending on the remedies you seek. With the right directives from a trusted medical professional, you can choose the most suitable management services from the options below:

1. Pain Medication

Taking pain medication to alleviate your condition is often the first solution because the medicine is accessible and should provide fast relief. Due to the high demand for pain medication, it is widely available in pharmacies and convenience stores near you. Despite this, it is always advisable to understand the various types of drugs available and choose the best option.

Types of Pain Medication

Acute pain can often be eradicated using aspirin or paracetamol, as they provide effective and fast relief from the discomfort. The medicine is also available without a prescription, making it easier to access during emergencies.

For more serious pain conditions, your doctor can prescribe opioids like codeine and oxycodone for effective pain relief. These drugs are only available on prescription, making it necessary to seek medical intervention first. Their use should provide a gradual recovery, and your doctor will schedule several review appointments to monitor how you respond to the drugs.

Patients with a diagnosed condition like epilepsy, anxiety, or depression can also receive anti-depressants, sedatives, and anti-epilepsy drugs to help manage their conditions. The primary reason for this is that these conditions often cause physical pain as a manifestation of a patient's psychological challenges.

 Factors to Consider Before Taking Pain Medication

Although pain medication is an effective pain management strategy, you should consider the following factors before using it as a remedy:

• Body Resistance to the Medication

After using pain medication for a significant period of time, your body may grow resistant to the drugs, leading to ineffective pain management. Due to this, you may have difficulty dealing with chronic pain, leading to the initial problem.

• Allergic Reactions

Alternatively, you may be allergic to ingredients used to create pain medication that would otherwise be effective. As a result, you may have to endure pain or seek alternative relief sources.

• Possible Addiction Problems

Pain medicine, like opioids, can also create unforeseen problems like addiction and cause the need for more medical interventions. Opioid addiction problems may take years to resolve, especially if you use the drugs constantly for pain relief. You may therefore have to stop using them to prevent complications.

2. Psychological Therapy Sessions

Pain may arise from psychological conditions that put our bodies in distress and create tension around our muscles. For example, anxiety can tense your body, putting pressure on your neck and shoulder joints. It also causes breathing pain because of the tension around your chest.

Similarly, patients suffering from depression report experiencing physical pain that may affect different body parts as a manifestation of their mental state. Due to this, psychological therapy may be a suitable option in some instances.

You can explore various psychological therapy treatment options like meditation, cognitive behavioral therapy, and practicing techniques to relax your mind. Doing so eases your body tension, and you experience less pain in the affected areas.

3. Physical Therapy

Physical therapy services offer a holistic pain relief process, as you will receive targeted services curated to promote pain eradication. After consulting a physical therapist, they will provide service options to help reduce chronic pain until you completely recover. 

Types of Physical Therapy

Different types of physical therapy also exist to target specific pain areas and promote effective pain relief. We also consider the patient’s request to help them receive a pleasant experience even as they aim to recover and improve their health. The main types of physical therapy available include:

• Soft and Deep Tissue Massages

Muscle strains and low-impact injuries cause lasting pain because of accumulated lactic acid in the affected area. Upon lactic acid buildup, the muscles strain and push the nerves, with the effect of extended pain durations.

Soft and deep tissue massages help spread the liquid and reduce the pressure on your nerves, reducing pain levels. While the initial massage sessions may be uncomfortable due to high pain levels, your physical therapist will gently ease you into the process.

Deep tissue massages are especially effective after exposure to high-impact injuries occurring after sports or an accident. The goal is to ensure the injured area is free from swelling, allowing the muscles to relax.

• Guided Exercises

Pain arising from medical conditions like arthritis or poor posture can be eradicated through guided exercises. When working with your physical therapist, they will give specific instructions that target various muscle groups to promote pain relief.

You must attend your sessions consistently to observe improvements when undertaking physical therapy involving guided exercises. Failure to attend your appointments can lead to regression, creating persistent pain.

• Application of Cold or Heat Packs on the Paining Area

Heat treatment has also effectively managed acute and chronic pain, making it another useful method during physical therapy. Heat causes a change in how much pain you perceive and can also reduce the nerve transmission of information. As a result, you are less likely to feel the discomfort you are used to during therapy, leading to improved overall wellbeing. 

• Using Hydrotherapy

Some physical therapy facilities can also accommodate water features like pools and hot tubs for water therapy. The method is effective for muscle and tissue pain, reducing pain perception. Further, hydrotherapy pain management can work similarly to the heat treatment option, especially if the water is warm or hot.

Although physical therapy involves gradual improvement in pain management, it is highly advisable for anyone seeking an effective method. Working with an experienced physical therapist is also essential, as it helps you make a proper recovery or find beneficial pain management options for the long term.

Contact a Las Vegas Physical Therapy Professional Near Me

Dealing with the pain of a period can be challenging, primarily because of the difficulty of undertaking everyday tasks. To prevent experiencing health complications, consider having a physical therapy professional assess your condition and offer therapy sessions as remedies. Finding an experienced professional is necessary, if you are confident in the quality of the services you receive.

At Suarez Physical Therapy, you can expect high-quality care to help you recover from chronic pain and continue your everyday life. Our goal is to provide advice, support, and physical therapy services targeting specific pain areas to any patient experiencing chronic pain in Las Vegas, Nevada. By doing so, you can experience lasting relief and avoid the risks associated with long-term pain medication. For more information about pain and how to manage it effectively, call us at 702-368-6778.