What to expect from a pain specialist

A pain specialist will work along with a person’s primary care doctor to investigate the cause of the pain and the possible ways to cure it. Usually they will carry out a complete physical exam. Apart from that, the doctor would like to know the description of the pain and how the person feels in detail. The answers to where the pain is triggered, the time it’s been there and when the pain increase can help the doctor to give appropriate treatments.

How the pain can be treated

With the advancement of research, new and more effective treatments are now available for patients to cure pain. The techniques which were used previously to make childbirth and surgery less painful are now being used to relieve other pain symptoms. Nowadays, most of the pains can be treated through methods such as medications, physical therapy, nerve blocks, electrical stimulations, psychological support and surgery.

Although all doctors and most health care professionals can treat pain, most of them do not have any formal training in management of pain. A pain specialist can be specialized in one or more fields such as anesthesiology, neurosurgery, neurology, orthopedics or physiatry.