Degenerative Disc Disease Treatment in Midtown Manhattan, NY

Degenerative disc disease treatment often requires you just to change your lifestyle. You don’t always need to receive the more drastic treatment for degenerative disc disease. To receive more invasive treatments, rely on the top-rated experts at our sports injury and pain management clinic to find the best options for how to treat degenerative disc disease. Come to our clinic to get your back pain evaluation and treatment. Meet our pain doctor Febin Melepura M.D. to get the relief you need in the safe, reassuring hands of the best back pain specialists in NYC.

Your spine consists of 33 vertebrae with discs in between each to allow proper cushioning and mobility throughout your back. These discs along with your vertebrae allow your spine to maintain proper posture and carry the weight of your body. Knowing the mechanics of your back and the signs of issues makes early detection and treatment for degenerative disc disease more successful. That’s how an experienced Manhattan team of sports and pain management specialists can help.

The discs between your vertebrae are made up of concentric sheets of collagen fibers. This surrounds the inner core, which is made up of a protein gel with cushioning fibers enclosed. Increased stress and injury cause the breakdown of the outer layer, and the inner layer can leak out. This outcome reduces flexibility, puts pressure on surrounding nerves, and allows bone-on-bone contact, leading to pain and eventual degenerative disc disease treatments.

Symptoms Direct Your Doctor to Best Treat Degenerative Disc Disease

Symptoms may be mild or severe. They may come and go or become persistent and chronic. Symptoms include:

• Pain from leaking discs or bone growths that apply pressure on neighboring nerves
• Neck pain; if leaking or damaged discs occur in the first eight vertebrae, it’s called cervical degenerative disc disease
• Shoulder pain resulting from irritation or damage to nerves and discs, where the pain radiates toward your shoulder, also called cervical radiculopathy
• Hand pain and numbness resulting from referred pain in your neck
• A movement that becomes painful
• Back pain, especially in your lower back if the vertebrae at the end of your spine are compromised
• Hip pain, another form of lumbar radiculopathy from radiating nerve root pain
• Leg pain or sciatica occurs when the largest nerve in your leg becomes pinched and inflamed, causing pain when sitting, standing or walking
• Normal daily activities become difficult to perform

It’s hard to determine when your pain is from overuse and when more extensive degenerative disc disease treatment may be required. You should definitely consult your NYC physician if your pain gets worse for no obvious reason, especially if rest and over-the-counter medication doesn’t provide relief. If numbness and tingling continue or you become unable to move part of your body, call for an appointment. If you start to lose control of your bowels or bladder, seek medical attention soon.

Diagnosis to Prepare for Degenerative Disc Treatments

Certain individuals have a greater risk of developing degenerative disc disease. If you’re obese or a smoker, or you have a job doing the heavy lifting, your chances increase. Your sports medicine and pain specialist considers these and other information from:

• A complete and extensive medical history
• Physical exam
• Range-of-motion tests
• Looking for areas of tenderness and nerve-related changes, such as numbness, weakness, and tingling
• Checking for other conditions, such as fractures, tumors, or infection
• Imaging tests

How to Treat Degenerative Disc Disease

Treatments, as with any degenerative disease, focus mainly on symptom relief and slowing the progression of the disease. Your Manhattan pain specialist may suggest several treatments at once, including:

• Physical therapy
• Exercises for stretching and strengthening
• Cold and heat treatments
• Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS)
• Careful and gentle manual manipulation
• Epidural steroid injections
• Rarely, surgery to remove damaged discs, fuse your spine for strength, or replace a damaged disc with an artificial substitute

Do you have any questions about the degenerative disc disease treatment in Mahattan, NY we offer? Would you like to schedule an appointment with the best-rated back pain management doctor Febin Melepura MD of NYC pain management clinic? Please contact our office for a consultation with the top pain relief specialist in Midtown Manhattan.

Febin Melepura, MD is a top rated, best in class interventional pain management doctor. He is a nationally recognized pain relief specialist and is among the top pain care doctors in New York City and the country. He is an award winning expert and contributor to a prominent media outlets.

Dr. Febin Melepura has been recognized for his thoughtful, thorough, modern approach to treating chronic pain and, among other accolades, has been named a “top pain management doctor in New York”, and one of “America’s Top Doctors™” for an advanced sports injury treatments.

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