When dealing with pain, it's not always easy or possible to hit a home run and achieve a pain free existence with treatment.
It is possible though, but then it is unreasonable after doing well with treatment to expect that pain free existence to continue forever.
Here's 3 secrets to pain management treatment:

1. Comprehensive Pain Centers are better.
   Patients end up in pain from their own unique experiences.
   Whether it's from a car accident, sports injury, a moving incident, or simply a sneeze, a "one size fits all" mentality" is not the best treatment mentality.
   Pain treatment is similar to a buffet ice cream sundae smorgasbord set up where having more ingredient options is better.
   People may not put all the ingredients on their sundaes because they have different tastes to suit their taste buds.
   Comprehensive pain centers include more ingredients so patients can receive individualized treatment.
   Certain patients may benefit from a combination of physical therapy, chiropractic, and epidural injections.
   Others may just need simply physical therapy for a few sessions to learn a home program.
   The combination of traditional treatment options including physical therapy, medication management, and interventional pain treatments form the base of a comprehensive pain center, and adding complementary (alternative ) treatments such as chiropractic, spinal decompression therapy, and acupuncture round out a comprehensive multi-discipline pain center.
   The premise is for medical providers working collaboratively to help patients individually.
   
2. Patient expectations are paramount.
   As with most treatments from medical providers, the best results are achieved if patient expectations are correctly handled from the beginning of treatment.
   If a doctor tells every patient the treatments will make him or her pain free, there will definitely be some unhappy customers.
   If a patient has failed 3 back surgeries, has significant scar tissue surrounding multiple nerve roots with persistent leg pain, and lives on chronic pain medication then the expectations will be very different from a patient with a moderately painful back strain for the first time.
   So once the examination and work up are established and the treatment plan is being laid out, the medical provider should have a frank discussion with the patient about the chances for success.
   Of course there's always the unknown and there's never a 100% guarantee a treatment will work, all that exists is anecdotal evidence and statistics from what's known in the research.
   
3. Technology is great, and sometimes not.
   In some aspects technology has progressed the pain management treatment options dramatically.
   For instance radio frequency ablation has been an excellent progression when facet blocks work and then wear off, as RFA can provide upwards of 2 years pain relief.
   Also spinal cord stimulators have progressed nicely with technological improvements to provide more effective pain relief in last resort situations.
   One aspect where technology in my opinion is not so great is in physical therapy machines.
   If patients do their treatments on high tech machines, how do they maintain a home program when those treatments are over? The best PT treatments in my opinion involve low tech rehab equipment, so that patients can learn their stretching and strengthening routines and then continue at home for best results.
   

These 3 secrets can help pain patients know what to look for and ask when seeking treatment.
Keeping realistic expectations and having multiple treatment options with modern technology when appropriate provides the best chance for success.