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Bulging Discs & Sciatica – Inject Or Not?

I received a simple but powerful video testimonial from a patient at Enfield Osteopathic Clinic who had undergone a programme of IDD Therapy.

What is interesting is that for Jeannette (see below), an injection four years ago did the trick for her pain.  But last year, her pain was so bad and nothing helped it, then she tried IDD Therapy.

The majority of all practitioners I speak to are generally anti-injections, in private at least.

The issue is that when injections don’t work, people end up in a clinic.  And typically if 10 people end up in a clinic who have had an injection, the clinician may conclude that injections don’t work.

What they don’t necessarily see are the ones where it might have been effective.

Likewise I think there are a lot of pain consultants who have a greater sense of their success because it is easy to conclude that if a patient has an injection and they don’t come back, then the injection must have worked.  They do not see how many patients turn to private clinics because the injections have had little or no effect.

IDD Therapy will not work for 100% of patients. The sort of patients coming for IDD Therapy have difficult conditions so it is unrealistic to work miracles.  But we are all especially proud of the very high levels of success precisely because we are treating difficult conditions which have NOT responded to other treatments.

My view is that injections have their place.  But on a cost/benefit measure, I strongly believe that they should come AFTER a programme including IDD Therapy.

It would be wonderful if a quick injection would give lasting pain relief consistently, but they do not address compression and immobility, or impaired function.

And the biggest problem in my eyes is that most NHS and private hospitals have no coherent link between injections and rehab.  An injection is given and then the patient is discharged.

Given the costs of getting an injection (consultations, scans and procedure), if injections are going to be given then it doesn’t make sense not to link the injection with rehab.

And my final issue with the system.  Patients undergo manual therapy, core training etc.  If for whatever reason that isn’t effective and an injection is given to try to create a window of rehab, why do we expect the same rehab that had failed prior to injection, to have a good chance of bringing about the necessary change post injection, particularly when so many injections fail to create a window of pain relief anyway?

Something different HAS to be done.

Now the choice of what needs to be done can be debated.  The network of IDD Therapy providers have all decided what works best.

Did you know that there are over 2,000 IDD machines around the world at over 1,000 clinics.  It has been calculated that well over 5 million treatments have been carried out.

The reason for a lack of visibility is that there has been relatively little coordination between all the clinics.  Every clinic just doing their own thing.

That is changing.  The network is coming together and through mediums like whatssapp practitioner groups and expanded relationships, knowledge and insights are being shared.

For back pain, we may be able to squeeze marginal improvements out of manual therapy programmes, but the biggest opportunity for step change in spine care is combining manual therapy with IDD Therapy.

With IDD Therapy you create a platform for rehab by decompressing and mobilising TARGETED spinal segments.  You then combine the IDD Therapy with manual therapy and exercises to get a better outcome for patients.

And for practitioners?  Well if you start doing things differently, you will get different results.

If you have a bigger vision for your practice and want to do more for patients, then IDD Therapy is one of the best vehicles to achieve that end.

Thanks go to John Yeboah of Enfield Osteopathic Clinic for sharing this inspiring patient story.  For more information about IDD Therapy at Enfield Osteopathic Clinic, visit www.enfieldosteoclinic.com or call 020 8482 1112.

Author: Stephen Small – IDD Therapy Disc Clinics, Steadfast Clinics.

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About the Author:Stephen Small