If you’ve sought care from your primary care physician for back discomfort only for them to refer you to a spine specialist, you may be wondering if this means that a surgical procedure is in your future. If you do need surgery, you’ll be in great hands when you’re working with a specialty team, but know that a referral certainly doesn’t mean that a procedure is definitely in your future. In today’s blog, we explain a little bit more about what a referral to a spine specialist means for your back pain.
Why Am I Being Referred To A Spine Specialist?
While a referral to a spine specialist may not be the news you want to hear from your treating physician, you simply need to reframe how you’re thinking about back pain. All a referral means is that your medical team wants the best and brightest minds assisting with your care. While a general practitioner has a very wide breadth of medical knowledge, spinal specialists have an incredibly deep knowledge of a specific aspect of your health – your neck and back. It’s great that your primary care physician can help cast a broken arm or prescribe antibiotics if you get sick, but when you have a more complex issue, you want someone with a deep understanding of that area of the body providing care.
We always compare it to how you care for your automobile when it needs service. If you need to have your tires replaced or oil changed, you can head to any auto body shop for these simple services. However, if the pistons on your BMW’s engine are having synchronization issues, you probably want someone who specializes in BMW service to take a look at your vehicle. When the issue is complex or requires a deep level of knowledge about a specific issue, specialty care is often the best route.
So while a spine specialist may be best suited to help provide care, that doesn’t mean that the answer is always surgery. In fact, most patients who are referred to us from other providers don’t end up needing surgery. Many patients simply need a targeted and individualized care plan for their issue that has been cultivated by a team that truly understands the mechanisms behind their discomfort. Oftentimes that means developing a comprehensive treatment plan that involves:
- Rest
- Posture Improvements
- Medication
- Hot/Cold Therapy
- Weight Management/Diet Improvements
- Exercise
- Targeted Stretching Techniques
- Physical Therapy
- Manual Therapy
- Corticosteroid Injections
When used in conjunction with one another and when overseen by a specialist, these techniques are often very successful in helping a person overcome their spinal issue and avoid the need for surgery.
Even though it is oftentimes very successful at providing relief, surgery is typically viewed as an option only when conservative treatments fail. If physical therapy or posture correction techniques fail to provide relief, you’re typically not any worse for the wear, but surgery is a major undertaking for your body, so if it fails to provide relief, there are more issues that could develop as a result. While you may have been referred to a specialist, know that your spine specialist views surgery as a last resort, so if you’re willing to put in the work with conservative techniques, you stand a good chance at avoiding surgery.
If you want to learn more about the services offered at our specialty clinic, or to talk to a spine specialist about your back issues, reach out to Dr. Jackman and the team at The Midwest Spine & Brain Institute today at (651) 430-3800.
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