Nerve Pain

Damage to your nerves from injury or diabetes can trigger episodes of burning, shooting, or stabbing pain anywhere in your body. At Union Anesthesia Associates, with offices in Union, Scotch Plains, Bloomfield, South Bound Brook, New Brunswick, Old Bridge, and Woodbridge, New Jersey, the board-certified anesthesiologists offer methods like nerve blocks and radiofrequency ablation to provide lasting nerve pain relief. They also specialize in innovative therapies to manage phantom limb pain that can develop after amputation surgery. Call the Union Anesthesia Associates office nearest you today to schedule a nerve pain evaluation or book your appointment online.

What causes nerve pain?

Your central nervous system is your spinal cord and brain. Your peripheral nervous system comprises all the nerves that travel from the spine throughout your body, providing sensations both pleasurable and painful.

Neuropathic (nerve) pain develops when damage or dysfunction affects your nervous system. This is most often due to an injury or underlying disease. When your nerve fibers are damaged, they can send mixed signals to the pain centers of your brain and trigger severe or chronic pain.

Diabetes is among the leading causes of nerve pain. Uncontrolled blood sugar damages nerves. You can also develop chronic nerve pain from car accidents and other traumatic injuries or from medical conditions like:

• Shingles
• Alcoholism
• Fibromyalgia
• Multiple sclerosis (MS)
• Parkinson’s disease
• Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS)

People who undergo amputation can experience phantom limb pain, as though the amputated limb were still there, sending pain signals to the brain. This is a dysfunction in pain signals between the spinal cord and the brain.

Union Anesthesia Associates provides personalized treatment plans for nerve pain and its causes. The board-certified anesthesiologists focus on nonsurgical therapies to reduce the number and severity of nerve pain episodes so that you can lead a more physically active life.

When should I seek medical care for nerve pain?

Schedule a diagnostic evaluation at Union Anesthesia Associates if you suffer from persistent or intense pain that can’t be managed with home remedies.

How severe the nerve pain is varies from person to person and feels like:

• Stabbing pain
• Shooting pain
• Burning sensations
• Electric shocklike sensations

You can also experience tingling or numbness in the area of the damaged nerve.

The pain management specialists complete a physical exam. They might order X-rays, nerve blocks, and other diagnostic tests to find the damaged nerves.

How is nerve pain treated?

Union Anesthesia Associates offers several nonsurgical treatments to ease nerve pain and restore your quality of life. Depending on the root cause of your nerve pain, you could be a candidate for:

• Physical therapy
• Prescription or over-the-counter (OTC) pain relievers
• Anti-inflammatory medication
• Steroid injections
• Local anesthetic blocks
• Radiofrequency nerve ablation

The specialists also offer sensory discrimination training, a feedback-guided program that helps you distinguish between specific sensory stimuli to better manage phantom limb pain.

Call the Union Anesthesia Associates office nearest you today to schedule a diagnostic evaluation for nerve pain or book a consultation online.