Life is much harder when you’re in pain. Whether you are suffering from an auto accident, work-related injury, or any kind of chronic pain, your quality of life is diminished. You can live your best quality of life with options like pain management and regenerative medicine. Pain management focuses on relieving the pain caused by other symptoms. Regenerative medicine, on the other hand, puts its focus on a solution to heal the condition that is causing your pain. Samwell Institute for Pain Management offers you a choice, with both pain management and regenerative medicine in Colonia and Livingston, NJ.

Regenerative Medicine

Regenerative medicine is a relatively new form of treatment. It is designed to work on healing the damaged tissue. At SamWell Institute for Pain Management, Dr. Jay M. Shaw uses this treatment to help patients manage their chronic health issues, like joint osteoarthritis and sports injuries. For this treatment, platelet-rich plasma, or PRP, and stem cells are used.

The PRP is made from one of your blood samples. It contains a larger amount of natural healing components, like platelets, specialized cells, and growth factors. The PRP is injected into the tissue that is damaged. It helps the injury or disease more quickly and helps produce new, healthy tissue to take the place of the affected tissue.

There has been a lot of encouraging research regarding stem cells, but many people are still confused about what they are and how they are used. These blank repair cells can turn into specialized cells in the body. They can create new muscle, bone, vessels, or nerves. Stem cell therapy is used to help support the natural healing of the body and speed up the process. When they are injected into the affected tissue, these stem cells transform into whatever kinds of specialized cells that are needed to repair the tissue.

Spinal Cord Stimulation

Regenerative medicine is used for joint osteoarthritis, which can cause knee, hip, and shoulder pain. Injuries from sporting activities also respond well to regenerative medicine. However, there are other treatment options available, including spinal cord stimulation.

Spinal cord stimulation, or SCS, can help some people get relief from some pain conditions. First, a spinal cord stimulator is implanted, to send electrical pulses to the electrodes that are positioned over the spinal cord. The stimulator intercepts pain signals on their way to the brain. Instead of feeling pain, the person feels nothing or possibly a tingling sensation in that area.

SCS therapy is typically used to treat neuropathic leg and back pain. This condition is experienced by around 25% of back surgery patients following surgery. Today it is being used more and more to avoid traditional back surgery. Another condition that spinal cord stimulation is helpful in treating is complex regional pain syndrome or CRPS. This chronic pain condition generally causes pain in one limb, either an arm, hand, leg, or foot. CRPS often happens after incurring an injury and is thought to be because of damage to the peripheral and central nervous pain.

The Bottom Line

Whatever the source of your pain is, you don’t have to suffer in silence. If you have been in an accident at work, at home, or in your car, you need to have an examination. If you have been suffering from chronic pain, the pain management specialists at SamWell Institute for Pain Management can help you achieve a better quality of life.