The Pain Relief Fact Center

Through our experiences in our San Antonio back pain clinic, we have found that chronic back pain is incredibly common.  Due to the failure of the typical treatment methods, a large number of people are living in constant pain needlessly.

The most commonly utilized treatments for chronic back pain have a poor success rate statisitically, but new treatment methods are now providing relief for even back pain sufferers who have suffered for many years.

One of the most dramatic back pain breakthroughs we’ve seen in our San Antonio, Texas office is  spinal decompression.  Spinal decompression is a technologically advanced form of spinal traction that reduces spinal disc bulging, enhances disc hydration and nutrition, and mobilizes spinal joints and connective tissue.  For properly-selected patients, the results are often nothing short of amazing.

Unfortunately, spinal decompression continues to be underutilized as a back pain treatment for a couple of reasons.  The early marketing for spinal decompression was often hype-filled and factually inaccurate, leading to a certain level of distrust among patients and doctors alike.  Although decompression has statistically proven to be the most successful treatment for most serious types of back pain, the early marketing for it promoted it as a panacea for all back pain sufferers.  Spinal decompression does enjoy an excellent success rate, but it is not effective in every patient and it is simply not appropriate for every back pain sufferer.

Another reason that spinal decompression continues to  be underutilized for treating back pain is due to the usual challenges that all new health care procedures face in the United States.

The problem is that insurance companies refuse coverage for medical procedures that don’t have an established procedure code.  The American Medical Association produces the codes, but won’t add a new code until a decent number of doctors are using the new procedure.  Doctors won’t invest in the equipment and/or training to use the new procedure if it’s not covered by insurance (because they will have a hard time getting paid for it).  This brings us back to the insurance companies not covering the new procedure because there’s no code for it.  Because of this system, it usually takes several years for any new treatment to be widely used, no matter how beneficial it may be. 

Because of the lack of insurance coverage for spinal decompression, many of the back pain patients we consult with at our san antonio spinal decompression clinic will opt to first pursue other treatment modalities that are covered by their insurance.  Sadly, many of these patients go for months or years in pain, spending many thousands of dollars in insurance co-pays and deductibles on the standard back pain treatments without any results to show for it.

Some of these back pain sufferers eventually undergo surgery hoping for a cure for their symptoms.   About half of the patients who do seek a surgical treatment for their back pain find out that the surgery either does not help or makes things worse.

While spinal decompression is far from 100% successful, it does get good to excellent results for the vast majority of back pain patients.  Ironically, although some patients we’ve consulted with have opted to go the surgery route because they think it will be less expensive due to it being covered by insurance, most back surgeries wind up being more expensive to the patient than spinal decompression.

Many back pain patients don’t realize in advance that the co-payments for a high-priced medical procedure like back surgery will usually run several thousand dollars.  With no insurance coverage at all, spinal decompression typically costs the patient less out of pocket than an average back surgery (if they are paying an insurance co-payment of 10% or more), and a lot less than a complicated back surgery.

  In most cases, spinal decompression is statistically the most effective treatment available and in the long-run is also usually the most cost-effective treatment available.

Dr. Michael Golab, D.C. and Dr. Ronald Fielden, D.C. are the treating doctors at South Texas Non Surgical Spinal Center.  Visit their website for more about spinal decompression and their San Antonio back pain treatment program.