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Ask the Expert:

Dr. Tamer B. Ghaly Talks Pain Management

What is Pain Management?

Pain management is a broad range of multidisciplinary interventions designed to decrease a patient’s pain while restoring their ability to fully engage in the day to day activities that they enjoy most. While some of those interventions have been around for decades, combining them all into a medical sub-specialty is relatively new. It includes things like injections and nerve blocks, as well as physical therapy, chiropractic care, medication, and psychological pain evaluation.

How do you determine which treatment is right for each patient?

I work closely with each patient to accurately pinpoint the origin and understand the nature of their pain. If they have chronic pain coming from a specific nerve, I know that we need to block the pain at the nerve site. If they have more of a general, muscular pain, they may benefit from physical therapy, medication or chiropractic care. Our interventions are all low risk; we start with the treatment that we determine will give each individual patient the greatest benefit with the lowest risk. Every plan is tailored to the specific needs, tolerance, and response of the individual patient.

What do you bring to the table that is unique?

As an internist, I found the best part of my job to be the doctor-patient communication. Pain management is about communicating to find the source of the pain and the right treatment. The satisfaction for both doctor and patient when you get there is great. More that 90% of my patients find the relief they are seeking, due in part to some of the newer treatments I brought to this practice that very few people in the country are doing. It is a tremendous advantage for patients in Greater Waterbury.