Pain Management St. Louis. Living with pain is not easy and, unfortunately, not uncommon. When chronic pain is getting in the way of your ability to enjoy life or do the activities you want to do, you need a sound pain management solution.

Axes Physical Therapy’s team of St. Louis area movement experts has years of experience successfully guiding patients to meaningful pain relief. We are able to treat pain effectively by tailoring the treatment to each individual, considering their needs, goals, condition, and lifestyle. Your pain management physical therapist draws from their clinical experience and the most up-to-date evidence and industry practices to create the right pain management plan for you.

Contact Axes make an appointment online today to get started on your journey to living pain-free. Visit any of our locally owned and operated locations throughout Greater St. Louis and Eastern Missouri for convenient and accessible pain management.

Pain Management: Prevalence

Pain is a prevalent problem for people of all shapes and sizes in the United States and across the globe, and the St. Louis area is no different. If you are suffering from chronic pain, you are not alone.

The physical and occupational therapists of Axes Physical Therapy in St. Louis and throughout Missouri treat pain sufferers every day. Though the numbers surrounding the effects of pain on the population are staggering, they do not surprise our experienced pain management professionals.

The Facts about Pain

• Chronic pain costs patients more than $560 billion every year in medical costs, reduced earnings, and other expenses and losses, with estimates from the National Institutes of Health putting the figure as high as $635 billion per year.
• On any given day, approximately 50 million adults in the United States are living with pain.
• Over 20% of adults live with chronic pain and 7.4% suffer from chronic pain that interferes with their daily life and causes disfunction.
• Of those living with chronic pain, 89% of them have experienced the pain for at least one year.
• Pain is one of the leading causes of missed work, costing $61.2 billion a year in the United States in lost productivity alone. 76.6% of that loss is due to decreased productivity of workers dealing with pain while working, rather than work absences related to pain.

All this is to say that at Axes Physical Therapy, we do not take the task of pain management lightly. We recognize the gravity of the problem and have decades of experience formulating and executing therapies and treatments that manage or eliminate pain in our patients.

Proper, empirically supported, results-driven pain management is critical for adults in the St. Louis area and all over the country. Our qualified team of physical therapists and movement specialists is on a mission to eliminate pain and optimize mobility for every patient who comes through our doors. Trust your pain management needs to the experts at Axes Physical Therapy in St. Louis.

Pain Management in St. Louis: Understanding Your Pain

Pain is a sensation we experience when our peripheral nervous system sends signals from the receptors throughout the body to the brain. Understanding the nature of your pain can help your physical therapist or other pain management doctor effectively treat the source of your pain and return you to peak movement health.

As someone living with pain and a perspective pain management patient, it helps to understand the topic of pain and the type of pain you are experiencing. Pain is generally categorized as either acute or chronic.

• Acute pain: limited in duration, most often reflective of actual tissue injury or damage
• Chronic pain: longer-lasting pain, more likely tied to factors other than tissue injury or damage such as chronic inflammation, changes in nerve sensitivity, emotions, prior traumatic injury, and changes that occur in the brain

Symptoms of acute pain include:

• pain that lasts less than 3 months
• the sensation of pain is local to the injured area
• accompanied by swelling, warmth, and redness
• associated with an injury or specific event
• increased pain when the injured area is agitated or compromised, and relief when the factor causing the pain is removed; if you have a knee injury, you may feel additional pain when putting pressure on that leg, but find that the pain is lessened or alleviated when you take your weight off of that leg, such as when sitting down or elevating it

Symptoms of chronic pain include:

• pain that persists for longer than 3 months
• not directly or immediately related to an injury
• widespread pain
• unpredictable degrees of pain that are not consistent with a specific motion or activity
• hypersensitivity to even minor pain triggers
• may be accompanied by psychological factors such as depression, fear, or anxiety

If you have recently been injured and are experiencing acute pain, talk to our St. Louis physical therapists about treating your injury to eliminate your pain quickly and heal correctly to avoid chronic pain issues in the future.

If you suffer from chronic pain, it can feel like it will never end. Work with our pain management team to establish and engage in the right pain management solutions for you so that you can return to the daily activities that are important to you without debilitating and unpredictable pain.

You need an effective pain management solution from someone you can trust. Axes Physical Therapy understands that time is of the essence in working toward eliminating pain. Contact us today to discuss your pain management options with a pain specialist.

Physical Therapy for Pain Management

Living with pain is limiting, often to the point of debilitating. Pain affects us psychologically as much as it does physically. It is easy to feel desperate or hopeless when you have lived with chronic pain for years or what feels like an eternity. Our physical and occupational therapists give you hope and remain dedicated to your complete recovery and return to life as you want it to be. A good pain management plan like physical therapy will target the source of your pain and, in the meantime, help you manage the psychological experience of pain episodes.

Physical therapy is increasingly one of the first and best recommendations for individuals suffering from pain. Physical therapy is an evidence-based approach to the body and movement and draws upon the principles of kinesiology and the musculoskeletal system. As the American Physical Therapy Association puts it, physical therapists are movement experts who work to improve quality of life by prescribing exercise, administering hands-on care, and providing patient education. Axes’ physical and occupational therapists are passionate about returning their patients to the activities they love and eliminating pain by treating the patient holistically. Trust us to help you manage and eliminate your pain.

We can help you manage your pain by providing physical therapy treatment methods that do the following:

• Reduce tightness and inflammation
• Strengthen muscles, tendons, and ligaments
• Restore balance to the body
• Improve range of motion
• Manage scar tissue
• Improve overall functioning

Pain Management Treatment Methods

Our physical therapists have extensive backgrounds in a wide range of treatment types and specialties. You will work with a dedicated pain management physical therapist who will design the right treatment plan for you. Some of the treatment methods we might employ are:

• Manual therapy
• Exercise and movement
• Graded exposure
• Heat/Cold applications
• Trigger point dry needling
• Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulator (TENS)
• Ultrasound
• Massage therapy

We cannot provide meaningful pain management unless we understand your experience. In order to address your pain and provide the safest and most effective treatment, your physical therapist will perform a thorough evaluation, consult your medical history, and perform a physical exam.

You are an integral part of getting an accurate picture of the condition you are dealing with. When you see a physical therapist for a pain management evaluation, be honest and provide as much information as possible. Your physical therapist may ask you things such as:

• How long have you had pain?
• How did it start?
• Where is the pain located?
• When do you experience the pain?
• What types of activities bring it on?
• How long does it take for it to go away?
• What does the pain “feel” like?
• What can make the pain feel better (lessen)?
• On a scale of 0 to 10, can you rate how much pain you are currently experiencing?
• What do you think is causing the pain?
• What is your past medical history?

Pain Management Near You in St. Louis

When dealing with pain, you must have a trusted medical expert on your side who understands your condition and has the tools and experience necessary to provide you with the pain management solutions you need. Axes Physical Therapy is home to a vast network of physical and occupational therapists that are among the best in their respective specialties.

Work with a pain management professional at Axes Physical Therapy for a customized pain management plan based on proven treatment methods. Call us today or find the Axes location that is most convenient for you.