Living with chronic pain can feel like an endless cycle, marked by trial-and-error treatments, temporary fixes, and the constant search for meaningful relief. While conventional approaches like oral medications and rest can provide short-term chronic pain relief, they often fail to address the deeper sources of persistent pain.
That’s where interventional pain management can offer a safe and effective path forward. Interventional pain management provides targeted, image-guided treatments like epidural steroid injections, radiofrequency neurotomy, and clinical Botox®. These methods aim to interrupt pain at its source, and can lead to long-term relief, improved function, and a return to the life you desire.
What Is Interventional Pain Management?
Interventional pain management is a specialized, non-surgical approach to diagnosing and treating pain using targeted, image-guided procedures. These minimally invasive treatments are designed to reduce pain at its source—often by calming inflamed nerves, interrupting pain signals, or relaxing overactive muscles.
Methods of interventional pain management become particularly valuable when conservative treatments haven’t provided lasting relief, and surgery isn’t necessary or desired. It bridges the gap between passive symptom management and more invasive interventions, helping patients regain function without major disruption to their lives.
Epidural Injections: Why To Consider Them
Epidural steroid injections are a well-established interventional treatment for spine-related pain, particularly when nerve inflammation is involved. These injections can help calm irritated nerves and reduce inflammation, making them a valuable option for patients experiencing:
- Herniated discs
- Sciatica (lumbar or cervical radiculopathy)
- Spinal nerve inflammation
The injection procedure involves administering a corticosteroid, often alongside a local anesthetic, into the epidural space around spinal nerves, using real-time imaging for precision and safety. This aims to relieve pain without the need for surgery, with effects that can last from weeks to months and even longer especially in coordination with a guided core stabilization and gentle strengthening program.
Radiofrequency Neurotomy (Radiofrequency Ablation) As An Option
For those with chronic neck, back, or joint pain linked to facet joint dysfunction, radiofrequency neurotomy (also called radiofrequency ablation) offers a precise, long-lasting treatment option. This procedure uses controlled heat to temporarily deactivate small sensory nerves that transmit pain signals from inflamed or arthritic joints. One of the most powerful aspects of this option is the diagnostic Medial Branch Block (MBB) that proceeds the use of this procedure to assist in precision, accuracy, and insurance reimbursement. The MBB can be used as a diagnostic injection alone or as a path to a successful radiofrequency neurotomy.
Using fluoroscopy, a specialized probe delivers targeted heat near the affected nerve to interrupt pain transmission. The procedure takes less than an hour, and pain relief typically lasts six to twelve months. This makes radiofrequency neurotomy a great option for patients with short-term relief from diagnostic nerve blocks who are not surgical candidates.
Therapeutic Injections: For Joint and Soft Tissue Pain
Therapeutic injections are targeted treatments that deliver anti-inflammatory medication—typically corticosteroids— and anesthetics directly into painful joints, bursae, or soft tissues. These minimally invasive injections are designed to quickly reduce inflammation and alleviate pain, making them effective tools for both acute and chronic musculoskeletal conditions.
Common conditions treated with therapeutic injections include:
- Arthritis
- Bursitis
- Tendon Pain or Tendonitis
- Trigger Points
Often, these injections provide rapid relief, allowing patients to regain mobility and begin or continue physical therapy and other rehabilitative treatments.
Clinical Botox® for Muscle Tension and Chronic Pain Relief
While best known for cosmetic use, Botox® is also FDA-approved for several medical conditions—and it plays an important role in interventional pain management. Clinical Botox® injections work by temporarily relaxing overactive or spastic muscles that contribute to pain, tension, or limited movement.
At CHARM, Botox® is used to treat conditions such as:
- Chronic migraine
- Cervical dystonia (neck muscle spasms)
- Myofascial pain syndromes
Botox® is injected into targeted muscles to reduce involuntary contractions and muscle tension, alleviating pain and improving function, which can aid in physical therapy. Effects from clinical Botox® begin within a few days and last three to four months.
Why CHARM’s Interventional Approach Is Different
Interventional pain management represents a modern, evidence-based path for those seeking real relief—without relying on surgery or long-term medication use. Whether you’re dealing with nerve-related pain, joint inflammation, or chronic muscle tension, interventional pain management can help interrupt the pain cycle and restore function.
At CHARM, each patient’s care plan is guided by clinical expertise, precision diagnostics, and a commitment to treating the whole person. Our experienced clinicians tailor each treatment to your unique needs and integrate interventional techniques with regenerative medicine strategies and neuromuscular base physical therapy for optimal, lasting results.
If pain is keeping you from the life you want to live, it’s time to explore a better path forward. Schedule a consultation with a CHARM specialist today and take the next step toward lasting relief.
