Pain Management Physician Discusses How to Find the Best Knee Pain Treatment Doctor in New York
The knee joint is an intricate structure in the human body, facilitating movement between the patella, femur, and tibia bones. It affects movement in various parts of the body, including the feet, hip, and pelvis. However, you can suffer from knee joint pain or chronic pain for various reasons.
In addition to knee joint injury, you can also suffer from chronic pain for various reasons like knee arthritis, dislocation, patellar tendinitis, bursitis, osteoarthritis, iliotibial band syndrome, and so much more. Since chronic pain and knee joint injury can happen for various reasons, it’s crucial for pain doctors to diagnose the root cause of knee pain before treating it.
Unfortunately, you will find a lot of pain doctors who jump straight to surgical procedures when they’re not necessary or recommend opioids. These methods are completely unnecessary, ineffective, and over-reliance on opioids can also cause addiction. As such, you must be very careful when looking for pain doctors.
In this article, a pain management physical discusses how to find the best knee pain treatment doctor in New York.
Interventional Knee Pain Specialists
Pain doctors or pain management doctors can come from all fields of medicine. They can be anesthesiologists, neurosurgeons, podiatrists, neurologists, physiatrists, or even other types of doctors. However, pain doctors from all fields of medicine can be largely divided into three broad categories based on the method of treatment.
The following are the three types of pain management doctors out there:
- Palliative Specialists: These are pain doctors who deal with chronic pain caused by underlying issues like cancer. They handle the psychological aspects of chronic pain and offer opioids for pain management.
- Interventional Knee Pain Specialists: These are pain management doctors who have been specially trained to diagnose and treat chronic pain arising due to issues in the spine, bones, or joints. These pain doctors help their patients avoid complicated surgeries and opioids — focusing, instead, on minimally invasive treatments that address the root cause of chronic pain.
- Chronic Pain Specialists: These pain management doctors focus entirely on opioid management. Instead of addressing the root cause of chronic pain, they provide opioid to mask the pain temporarily. Over-reliance on opioids for pain management eventually leads to addiction. As such, chronic pain specialists have contributed to the ongoing opioid crisis in the country.
When it comes to knee joint pain or chronic pain in the knees, you must look for interventional knee pain specialists. They’re the only ones with the training and skills necessary to diagnose the root cause of your knee pain and treat it accordingly.
Board-Certified Pain Doctors
You should look for board-certified pain doctors, i.e., pain management doctors who have received certification in pain medicine. This serves as a guarantee that the pain doctor has gone through vigorous residency and fellowship programs to achieve a certain level of experience and skills necessary to set themselves apart.
Pain Doctors with Strong Educational Background
Pain management doctors can come from all fields of medicine, and you can also find good pain doctors from all kinds of universities. However, you should look for pain doctors with a strong educational background, i.e., those who have trained at Ivy League Universities, Harvard Medical School, or other institutions of similar repute.
Minimally Invasive Treatments for Chronic Pain
The primary thrust of interventional pain specialists is that they should focus entirely on minimally invasive treatments for chronic pain and knee joint pain. Whether you’re suffering from a cruciate ligament, meniscus tears, knee arthritis, knee joint injury, or any other, the knee pain doctor should diagnose the root cause using a variety of tests before recommending one of the following minimally invasive treatments.
Steroid Injections
Steroid Injections, also known as Corticosteroids, are a form of anti-inflammatory medication injected into the relevant region in your knees to reduce inflammation and treat knee pain.
Viscosupplementation
Viscosupplementation, also known as a Hyaluronic Acid Injection, is a method in which hyaluronic acid is injected into your knee joint. Hyaluronic acid is a naturally-occurring fluid in the knee joint that offers lubrication to the cartilages and knee joint so they can glide over each other smoothly. If your knee joint doesn’t have enough hyaluronic acid, you may suffer from knee arthritis. This treatment improves mobility and reduces knee pain greatly.
Genicular Nerve Block
Genicular nerves are the sensory nerves that transmit pain signals in your brain. Genicular Nerve Block is a treatment in which oral anesthesia is injected into the affected genicular nerves to numb the nerve and prevent the transmission of pain signals.
Genicular Nerve Radiofrequency Ablation
If the aforementioned method works, then the pain doctor may proceed with a more permanent version of the same treatment. Genicular Nerve Radiofrequency Ablation is a method in which heat energy is used to destroy the affected genicular nerves, so they don’t transmit pain signals anymore. This is one of the most effective treatments for chronic pain due to knee replacement surgery.
Platelet-Rich Plasma Injection
Platelet-Rich Plasma Injection is a method used to reduce inflammation and also facilitate cell regeneration. It’s generally recommended for knee arthritis or tendinitis. However, this method is extremely expensive, not covered by insurance, and it’s still fairly new, so it’s not highly recommended.
Schedule an Appointment with Knee Pain Specialists
VIP Medical Group’s Pain Treatment Specialists has some of the best pain doctors and interventional pain specialists in New York. Pain doctors like Dr. Namrata Khimani, Dr. George Hanna, and Dr. Michael Nguyen are highly-trained Ivy League-educated interventional pain specialists who diagnose the root cause of your knee joint pain and treat it accordingly. For more information, please schedule an appointment with knee pain specialists today.