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When to Seek Medical Care for Chronic Pain

Comprehensive Pain Management Blog When to Seek Medical Care for Chronic Pain

You try to bravely put a smile on your face as you struggle through your day, pain meeting you at seemingly every turn. And you’re tired of existing in a state of constant physical and mental stress, thanks to the discomfort. There is another way.

The team here at Comprehensive Pain Management, under the expert guidance of Drs. Do Chan and Boris Shwartzman, is dedicated to helping our patients improve their quality of life in the face of chronic pain. 

Through evidence-based treatments, we can release you from the prison that chronic pain creates, and the sooner we get started, the better your results.

Defining chronic pain

There are different definitions of chronic pain — three months, four months, and six months are among the more common. According to the CDC, chronic pain is defined as pain that lasts 12 weeks or more, and the problem affects one in five adults in the United States.

While we feel that any duration is too long when it comes to pain, there’s a little bit more to defining chronic pain than simply putting a timeline on it.

For example, if you’re diagnosed with a degenerative condition, like osteoarthritis in your spine, there’s a good case to be made for the fact that you’re dealing with chronic pain from day one.

Conversely, if you tear a ligament in your knee, you may deal with pain for several months, and even up to a year, before the tissue heals itself properly. In this case, we might consider this pain acute since there’s an end in sight to your discomfort.

The importance of getting help early

Whether you’re dealing with acute pain that becomes chronic or a new diagnosis that portends ongoing problems with pain, we feel it’s important to understand one thing: Seeking our help early helps you better manage your chronic pain.

To underscore this point, chronic pain can take on a life of its own and practically become the primary condition, which is why we want to address it as early as possible before it hijacks your life.

Resolving chronic pain

As specialists in pain management, we stay abreast of the latest protocols for managing pain so that we can make them available at our practice. 

To give you an idea of the wide range of options, here are just a few of the treatments we offer that address ongoing pain:

In addition to these treatments, we also provide you with valuable lifestyle tips that can help you control the pain, such as exercise, relaxation techniques, and diet. By tackling your chronic pain from every angle available, we give you the tools you need to live life on your own terms.

To stay one step ahead of your chronic pain, please contact one of our four offices in Attleboro or Franklin, Massachusetts, or South Kingstown or Warwick, Rhode Island, to set up an appointment.

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