Why treat when no longer in active pain?

“How will we know when active treatment is complete”?

This is a common question heard daily in the office and answered.  

This is the thought process.  The patient has a health issue that requires treatment and slowly it resolves.  As they heal the treatments will change to represent and keep up with the body’s changes during healing.  

Initial visit you may have had a problem that was well over the threshold of pain-no pain.  Treatment will bring you back down to that threshold line and ultimately past the line into the no-pain zone.  If the threshold is 5 on a 1 to 10 scale, we can plot recovery as such.  You arrived at an 8.  Treatment moves you to 7,6,5.5, 5 then 4.9.  At 4.9 you have minimal pain but only need have .2 points of margin before crossing back into the pain zone.  The goal is to give you as wide a margin for error as possible.  At 2.5 you may feel the same as 4.9 however, you now have a 2.6 margin of error to feel pain.  That may require some effort.  The hope is that we can keep you at 2.5, with intermittent treatment in office, daily at home treatment via nutrition and exercise and finally lifestyle change to support all changes.

It takes a trial period to determine the proper time span for each patient but it is done by both doctor and patient.  Of course, the patient needs to agree that treatment when you do not feel the need is still needed to support and maintain health.  Most would agree with that premise; however, others would wait until all pain returns before seeking help.  

Pain is a great motivator, as is the promise of leading a healthier and more fit life.