Pain Management
If you’ve recently suffered an injury or have been living with chronic pain for a while, contact the team at Superior Performance Center: They specialize in interventional pain management. Dr. Serge PierreCharles’s team works with you to relieve acute and chronic pain and helps ensure you have a rapid recovery.
Call or click today to schedule a consultation at the Superior Performance Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Frequently asked questions.
Interventional pain management is a method that utilizes pain-blocking techniques like epidural injections or joint injections to relieve you of chronic pain and restore mobility and functional activity. These techniques are usually applied when medications have failed to provide relief.
The expert team at Superior Performance Center consists of physicians, chiropractors, and physical therapists who design a personalized plan suited to your needs to help you lead a pain-free life.
There are numerous procedures to treat long-standing chronic pain. Many of these treatments numb the nerves, which brings relief by blocking the pain signals to the brain. Pain-blocking procedures include:
- Epidural steroid injections
- Facet joint injections
- Nerve blocks
- Sacroiliac injections
- Radiofrequency ablation
- Trigger point injections
- Botox®
Common conditions that Superior Performance Center address include:
- Spasticity management
- Dystonia
- Torticollis
- Migraines
- Other conditions that may lead to severe or chronic pain
An epidural steroid injection is often used in the management of low-back pain, lower extremity pain, or cervical pain. Your Superior Performance provider injects steroids or a local anesthetic into the epidural space around the spinal cord and nerves through a thin tube. This effectively blocks the pain.
Patients with chronic pain due to disc herniation respond well to epidural steroid injections.
Botox is a form of botulinum toxin, a neurotoxin cleared by the FDA to treat chronic migraines. Your provider at Superior Performance Center injects Botox into the superficial muscles of the head and neck. That blocks the pain fibers, so the perception of pain is lost.
Once injected, the effect lasts for nearly three months.
The practice team also uses Botox in the management of muscle spasms, tremors, spasticity, dystonia, or torticollis. These are neuromuscular disorders characterized by involuntary muscle contractions in the extremities and neck.
Opioids are narcotics often used in the management of severe acute and chronic pain from surgery or advanced cancer that has not responded to other pain medications. It’s a prescription medication to be used under physician supervision.
At the Superior Performance Center, the physicians monitor you for pain responses and to prevent you from developing an addiction disorder when you’re taking opioids.
If you’re looking to get relief from acute or chronic pain, call or click to schedule an appointment.
Botox for Pain
Botox is a highly purified form of botulinum toxin. This toxin is produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. Doctors use minute doses in the form of an injection to treat muscle spasms and other health problems.
At Superior Performance Center, Dr. PierreCharles can use Botox to treat conditions such as cervical dystonia or torticollis, chronic migraines, focal spasticity, and severe neck and muscle spasms.
Cervical dystonia, also known as spasmodic torticollis, is painful and involuntary muscle contractions that cause abnormal movements and postures of the neck and head. These awkward postures often cause discomfort, and the muscles generally pull the chair to one side, backward, or forwards. The National Organization for Rare Disorders states that cervical dystonia is a neurological disorder that originates in the brain. Still, the exact cause of cervical dystonia is unknown (genetic susceptibility might be to blame). The most common form is the head twisting when the chin turns toward the shoulder, defined as torticollis.
Chronic migraine is classified as experiencing a headache at least 15 days per month for four hours or longer. Many patients with chronic migraines also present with medication overuse—at least ten days per month using analgesic, opioid, triptan, or ergot derivative. Superior Performance Center offers a different option of Botox injections for patients experiencing chronic migraines.
Dr. PierreCharles will provide several shots of Botox around the head and neck once every 12 weeks to dull or prevent migraines.
Spasticity is a dysfunction of the central nervous system. High tone spams and muscle overactivity can characterize spasticity. If left untreated, soft tissue contractures and limb deformity can occur. Focal spasticity means this muscle impairment occurs around one joint, and multi-focal spasticity in multiple joints. Botox can relieve this condition by relaxing the muscles affected by spasticity.
Interventional Treatment
Interventional treatment is another option that Superior Performance Center offers to manage chronic pain. Interventional treatment uses techniques such as injections, nerve blocks, and radiofrequency ablation (RFA) to address the direct source of your pain. Interventional treatment can assist in relieving conditions such as chronic headaches, low back pain, muscle pain, bone pain, and neck pain. Dr. Pierre Charles will use fluoroscopy to assist with all injection-based treatments. Fluoroscopy is real-time X-ray imaging used to see the injections and guide them to their exact location. Visit Superior Performance Center for your pain management needs and be confident in Dr. PierreCharles’ treatments.
An epidural is an injection that goes into the “epidural space,” which is suitable outside the spinal cord’s protective membrane. It can be used for managing pain during and after surgery and is a useful option for managing chronic pain. Epidural injections can use a variety of medications, including corticosteroid injections, to relieve pain in the back, neck, arms, or legs. Conditions that can be treated with an epidural injection include joint arthritis, herniated disc, pinch nerve, spinal stenosis, and pain radiating from the spine.
A nerve block can “turn off” a pain signal in your body. It is an analgesic or anti-inflammatory injection directed toward a nerve or group of nerves to decrease pain and inflammation in an area of the body. A nerve block allows a damaged nerve time to heal without constantly irritating the patient. This is a temporary treatment, and Dr. PierreCharles may suggest other therapies to accompany this treatment.
Radio Frequency Ablation (RFA) uses radio waves to produce an electrical current that will heat the tissues to decrease the pain signals in that area. This type of treatment can be used for low back pain, neck pain, or pain related to joint arthritis. Relief can last anywhere from six months to 12 months or sometimes even years.
Medical Cannabis
Superior Performance Center offers evaluations and certifications for patients who may be eligible for the Minnesota Medical Cannabis Program. This service is not covered under traditional medical insurance, and therefore, is a cash-only option. Dr. PierreCharles’ team will perform an evaluation, determine eligibility, register the patient into the Minnesota Board of Medical Cannabis Registration System, and then provide a signed Medical Cannabis Certificate. We will assist the patient in locating the nearest Medical Cannabis Dispensary.
Qualifying Conditions Include and are not limited to:
- Intractable Pain
- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
- Cancer with severe/chronic pain, severe vomiting/nausea, cachexia
- HIV/AIDS
- Tourette Syndrome
- Glaucoma
- Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)
Seizures, including Epilepsy
- Severe and persistent muscle spasms
- Crohn’s Disease
- Multiple Sclerosis
If you or anyone you know suffers from one of these conditions and would like further information about being placed on the patient registry, please contact Superior Performance Center.
Alternative Medicine
Pain Management is comprehensive, and it can require multiple different courses of treatment. At Superior Performance Center, we want to ensure that our patients have access to many different types of treatment. These alternative treatment methods go beyond the local source of pain to address the body unit. The clinicians at Superior Performance Center can utilize these manual therapies in combination with rehabilitative exercises to bring lasting pain relief. For comprehensive pain management options, visit Superior Performance Center and ask Dr. PierreCharles about all our many alternative treatment options.
Instrument Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization (IASTM) is the use of an external instrument or tool to assist in mobilizing the muscular and fascial tissues of the body that might be restricting movement and causing pain.
Cupping
Cupping is an ancient form of alternative medicine that utilizes suction cups on the skin to decrease pain and inflammation and increase blood flow, relaxation, and well-being. Cupping is considered a type of deep-tissue massage.
An epidural is an injection that goes into the “epidural space,” which is right outside the spinal cord’s protective membrane. It can be used for managing pain during and after surgery and is a useful option for managing chronic pain. Epidural injections can use a variety of medications, including corticosteroid injections, to relieve pain in the back, neck, arms, or legs. Conditions that can be treated with an epidural injection include joint arthritis, herniated disc, pinch nerve, spinal stenosis, and pain radiating from the spine.
Graston Technique
Graston Technique (GT) therapy is an instrument-assisted therapy that effectively treats all soft tissue conditions, whether chronic, acute, or post-surgical. The Graston Technique instruments are uniquely designed that have found great success with restoring range of motion, eliminating pain, and restoring normal function. Graston Technique requires certified clinicians to use their instruments.
Superior Performance Center will have a certified massage therapist. Soft tissue massage targets muscles, tendons, ligaments, or other connective tissue such as fascia. Massage is one of the best-known examples of gentle tissue mobilization techniques.
Dry needling, or myofascial trigger point dry needling, is an alternative medicine technique similar to acupuncture. The method uses a “dry” needle, one without medication or injection, inserted through the skin into muscle areas. Trigger point dry needling is an effective therapy for treating muscular tension and spasm.
PRT is a type of therapy that focuses on the release of spasms and trigger points by placing the body in certain positions with applied pressure. The comfortable body and tissue positioning can manipulate the neurological system to interrupt the pain-spasm cycle. This will reset the tissues to their normal resting length. A common metaphor used to understand this is to think about unkinking a knot from a chain necklace. Instead of trying to pull or stretch the knot out, the tissues are pushed together, twisted, and compressed to take the tension off and unkink the knot.
SMR is a patient-centered therapy that empowers the patient to perform release techniques on themselves that they can use at home or in the office whenever they are experiencing pain, tightness, or spasms. SMR puts the patient in control of the amount of pressure applied to their muscles and fascia and requires the patient to become more in-touch with the feelings of release that can come from the body with this type of therapy.
