A key element for the success on nonsurgical treatment of back pain and neck pain is the spine specialized physical therapist.
If you’ve had a spinal injection, you may also be referred to a spine therapist who will provide two important elements for your recovery:
- Hands on movement of your back and neck to treat strain or other spine injury.
- Specialized stretches that can relieve pain symptoms but also make your back stronger, more flexible and resistant to a future strain or back pain attack or neck pain attack.
It’s important to understand that PASSIVE things like massage may feel good, but they don’t change the physiology of the back or neck.
The only way to permanently relieve pain involves changing the physiology of the back or neck by using exercise to make it stronger, more flexible and resistant to injury.
In this sense, we favor spine specialized therapists rather than a general therapist who treats knees, feet, hips or shoulder.While a general physical therapist may spend weeks attempting to mask pain using heat, ice or ultrasound, research has shown that using these passive “feel-good” treatments does not provide any lasting benefit. That is why most health insurance companies no longer pay for feel-good, passive treatments involving heat or ice. They believe you can do this on your own at home.
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Dr. Christopher Rolf Johnson at Colorado Spine Partners in Denver is referred back pain and neck pain patients; herniated disc patients; and scoliosis patients from across Colorado and the nearby states of Wyoming, Kansas, Nebraska and New Mexico. As a regional spine center of excellence, Colorado Spine Partners is the only spine center in Colorado listed on SpineCenterNetwork.com and CentersforArtificialDisc.com. As a fellowship-trained spine surgeon, Dr. Chris Johnson can provide a second opinion for back surgery; neck surgery; treatment for a herniated disc in the low back or neck; scoliosis surgery; and treatment options for flatback syndrome.
Dr. Johnson is proficient in the use of several FDA-approved artificial discs in the neck. If you’ve been told you need a spinal fusion or an ACDF surgery (anterior cervical discectomy and fusion), Dr. Johnson can provide a second opinion for neck surgery that provides this advanced artificial disc replacement option for motion preservation. Visit CentersforArtificialDisc.com for more detailed information on artificial disc replacement surgery. Dr. Johnson is also trained in minimally invasive spine surgery where he uses tubular retractors through a small one-inch incision which lessons disruption to muscles and ligaments, eliminates the need for outside blood, and enables most spine surgery patients to go home the same day for a quick recovery.
