Lower Back Pain Treatments

What is Back Pain?

The back is one of the most important and complicated parts of our body. It’s responsible for giving us balance, stability, and flexibility. When we’re healthy, we can do all these things without any problems at all, but when something goes wrong with the spine or the muscles that support it (the ones called spinal muscles), back pain can result from a number of different causes: stress on ligaments; muscular spasms; arthritis; fractures; herniated discs; degenerative disc disease.

Back pain is one of the most common types of pain that people experience. Lower back pain is one of the most common types of back injuries especially in adults over 40 years old. This is often caused by accidents or improper lifting but may also stem from postural problems, including sitting at a desk all day or sleeping on uncomfortable/inappropriate mattress types.

Causes of Back Pain

With modern corporate culture, many workers find themselves positioned in front of a computer daily with limited opportunities to stand and walk about. This is one of the factors that lower back pain is commonly attributed today. Many workers are taking to standing desks in order to address this problem.

On top of that, there are many different factors that can contribute to this condition or make someone more prone to this condition, including general health and activity, obesity, and smoking.

It is important to understand what lower back pain treatment options are available, as well as how they work and their associated risks. There are many different treatments for lower back pain but it’s best to start with non-invasive procedures first before moving on to more invasive methods if necessary.

Lower back pain treatment in Singapore frequently starts with a consultation with a pain relief doctor. Identification of the root cause and positioning of the pain is important in ensuring that an accurate treatment plan is drafted. Furthermore, back pain relief may take time to accomplish depending on the severity of the pain in the patient as well.

Our lower back pain doctor may prescribe a wide variety of treatments including physiotherapy as well as natural exercises, massages, and movements to ensure that the muscles of the lower back are stretched beneficially.

In serious cases with a medical prognosis, such as degenerative changes in the spine or a condition called spinal stenosis, more intense treatments may be assigned. This will vary and depend heavily on individual cases, and your pain relief doctor will be the best person to advise on this!

Of course, it is necessary to supplement anything that is prescribed with an understanding of what behaviours are causing lower back pain, if any. Pain relief may address the pain, but if bad habits remain uncorrected, the pain will simply return again.

Types of Back Pain

• Upper Back Pain
• Middle Back Pain
• Lower Back Pain
• Thoracic Back Pain

Why Do I Have Back Ache, Pain and Stiffness?

Many people suffer from back aches, pain and stiffness.
While there are sometimes dangerous reasons such as an infection, tumors, and fractures, most causes are mechanical.

While mechanical causes of back pain such as posture, back sprain, (wear and tear) degenerative thoraco-lumbar spondylosis, slipped discs and muscular trigger points are usually not dangerous, they can cause significant distress, making it hard to walk, causing time off work, affect a person’s social interactions and result in poor mood.

What Should I Do?

It is always a good idea to consult a doctor when you have a medical condition.
Where the pain is severe, or when there is an obvious emergency such as an accident causing a potential fracture, it is important to consult a lower back pain specialist orthopaedic doctor urgently.

Other situations where it is important to consult a doctor urgently include when there are “red flags” such as a fever, loss of weight, generally feeling ill, experiencing pain that wakes you up from sleep, leg pain, numbness and weakness, and changes in bowel and bladder function.

In long standing conditions which have been properly assessed by your doctor to not be dangerous or in mild cases of back sprain, rest and self-help measures can provide good lower back pain relief.

Do I Need To Do an X-ray or MRI?

Many mild cases of low back pain can usually be well managed by an experienced doctor who can provide a clinical diagnosis based on a patients clinical history and physical examination.
In cases where the initial treatments have not been effective, an X-ray would be a cost effective way to rule out most dangerous underlying problems.
In selected cases, an MRI might also be appropriate to provide a precise diagnosis.

What Are Common Lower Back Pain Treatments In Singapore?

For many patients, their doctors will likely prescribe rest and medications for a short period of time for low back pain relief. Long-term medications to get pain relief for back pain are less likely to be curative and risk potential side effects.
Physiotherapy when properly applied is another well accepted solution to achieve pain relief for back pain.
Using techniques such as manual therapy, medical massage, ultrasound, spinal decompression, stretches and exercises, it can have a good result in many cases.

Some doctors might recommend steroidal and trigger point injections.

Can Traditional Treatments Provide Lower Back Pain Relief?

Lower back pain can be very frustrating if not properly treated. Some people use traditional massage and acupuncture as a lower back pain treatment in Singapore. It is important when choosing a traditional Chinese back pain doctor to find someone who is properly licensed. While the back pain relief may not necessarily be long-lasting, they can be helpful.

Is Surgery Necessary For Back Pain?

In rare occasions of medical emergency such as a fracture and an unstable joint, surgery is a necessary option for lower back pain treatment in Singapore.
In most other cases, even where pain and stiffness are severe or have been present for a long time, there are multiple non-surgical options that a patient should first consider.

It is not difficult to find a lower back pain clinic in Singapore.
As surgery can have significant risks and cost, it is important to balance this against the potential benefits expected in detail.

I Had Back Surgery And It Did Not Work. Why?

In rare cases, patients may continue to suffer from symptoms of pain and stiffness after back surgery.
This can be a source of significant frustration especially when you expected surgery to be a dramatic “last hope”.
It can also be confusing when you are told “the scans are okay” or “the surgery was successful” but do not feel better.

This can be a complex condition and there are many possible reasons.

In some instances, the body has not had enough time to fully recover and symptoms will improve with rest.
At times, there could be some technical aspects of surgery that should best be discussed with your surgeon.
There are also cases where a patient’s original symptoms are caused by multiple factors such as inflammation, joint dysfunction, degeneration, and muscular trigger points.

Surgery may correct one specific cause of the patient’s symptoms but not be able to address the other causes.In such instances, a comprehensive post-surgery back pain treatment plan is likely needed.

Can I Use Medisave And Medical Insurance To Pay For Treatments?

As our treatments are very affordable and cost-effective, many patients choose to self pay.
For those with insurance coverage, we are happy to help support medical claims.
Medisave is another very popular option to help pay for medical treatments.

What Is Your Doctor’s Experience Treating Back Pain?

Dr Terence Tan has been treating back pain in Singapore at The Pain Relief Clinic since 2007. For the past 15 years, he has been using non-invasive technology to help patients recover from back pain.

He is accredited with both the Family Physician Accreditation Board and the Singapore Medical Council. He is also a member of the Singapore Medical Association and The Pain Association of Singapore.

Committed to providing quick back pain relief, his philosophy is to always offer patients the safest, most effective and least invasive technology driven  treatments possible.

What New Treatment Options Can Your Back Pain Clinic Offer For My Back Pain?

At our back pain clinic in Singapore, we adopt a biomedical targeted approach that addresses how the multiple component causes of pain affect you.
This allows us to provide treatment strategy that targets the root causes of your condition using medical technology in a comprehensive and cost-effective way.
Depend on your specific condition, some of the useful options that can give very good results include:

• Dietary Correction
• Non-Invasive Shockwave which stimulates deep tissue healing very cost effectively
• Indiba Therapy which gives rapid and long lasting recovery from back pain
• Rehabilitative Electromedical Stimulation

Non-Invasive Shockwave Therapy For Back Pain

• An internationally established method of treating pain and inflammation through stimulating tissue repair
• Approved by the US FDA and EU CE marked German technology
• Available at half the price offered by other medical centres

 

If you are suffering from back pain, or if your condition has not improved despite other treatments, we are able to help.