We’ve been treating back pain in our San Antonio spine clinic for several years now, and one thing is for certain:  chronic back pain is incredibly common and due to the failure of the typical treatments, a large number of people are living in pain needlessly.

While the most commonly-used back pain treatments have a high failure rate, new advancements in treatment are getting excellent results even for patients who have been suffering for many years without relief.

One of these new breakthroughs that we use in our San Antonio office is spinal decompression. Spinal decompression is a high-tech form of spinal traction that reduces spinal disc bulging, enhances disc hydration and nutrition, and mobilizes spinal joints and connective tissue.  When used appropriately, the results are often nothing short of amazing.

Unfortunately, spinal decompression continues to be underutilized as a back pain treatment for a couple of reasons.  The early marketing for spinal decompression was often hype-filled and factually inaccurate, leading to a certain level of distrust among patients and doctors alike.  Although decompression has statistically proven to be the most successful treatment for most serious types of back pain, the early marketing for it promoted it as a panacea for all back pain sufferers.  Spinal decompression does enjoy an excellent success rate, but it is not effective in every patient and it is simply not appropriate for every back pain sufferer.

Another reason that spinal decompression continues to  be underutilized for treating back pain is due to the usual challenges that all new health care procedures face in the United States.

The problem is that insurance companies refuse coverage for medical procedures that don’t have an established procedure code.  The American Medical Association produces the codes, but won’t add a new code until a decent number of doctors are using the new procedure.  Doctors won’t invest in the equipment and/or training to use the new procedure if it’s not covered by insurance (because they will have a hard time getting paid for it).  This brings us back to the insurance companies not covering the new procedure because there’s no code for it.  Because of this system, it usually takes several years for any new treatment to be widely used, no matter how beneficial it may be. 

Due to the lack of insurance coverage for spinal decompression, many of the back pain patients we consult with at our san antonio spinal decompression clinic will opt to go with insurance-covered treatment methods. Unfortunately many of these continue to live in pain for years and spend thousands of dollars in insurance co-pays and deductibles on the standard back pain treatments without any lasting relief.

Many of these back pain sufferers finally opt for surgery looking for a cure for their symptoms.   Statistically, about half of the patients who do seek a surgical treatment for their back pain discover that the surgery either does not help or makes things worse.

While spinal decompression is far from 100% successful, it does get good to excellent results for the vast majority of back pain patients.  Ironically, although some patients we’ve consulted with have opted to go the surgery route because they think it will be less expensive due to it being covered by insurance, most back surgeries wind up being more expensive to the patient than spinal decompression.

What many back pain patients fail to realize is that the co-payments for a high-priced medical procedure like back surgery will usually run several thousand dollars.  Even with no insurance coverage at all, spinal decompression typically costs the patient less out of pocket than an average back surgery, and a lot less than a complicated back surgery.

  In most cases, spinal decompression is statistically the most effective treatment available and in the long-run is also usually the most cost-effective treatment available.

Dr. Ronald Fielden, D.C. and Dr. Michael Golab, D.C. are the treating doctors at South Texas Non Surgical Spinal Center.  Visit their website for more about spinal decompression and their San Antonio back pain treatment program.