Imaging, When Is It Necessary, and How Does It Affect Treatment?
Imaging your injuries can give a lot of insight into what is causing pain, and can give a solidified treatment plan to make sure you get better. However, sometimes imaging is not recommended and does not need to be done right away, and you can start treatment and have the same positive outcomes without ever getting an X-ray or MRI done.
When is imaging necessary for treatment? The short easy answer is when there has been trauma to the body. For example, if you fell really hard off of a ladder, if you got into a car accident, if you ran and sprained your ankle hard enough for swelling and bruising to occur, these are all examples of times when imaging can be indicated. Other reasons would be progressive neurological symptoms (numbness, tingling, loss of motor function), and failure to respond to conservative care. If you have experienced any of the listed reasons, then imaging should be considered, also pain presentation and history should be considered before rushing to imaging.
When is imaging not necessary for treatment? Well, in short, if it was not listed as a reason for imaging to be done, then imaging is not required. If your back spasmed up on you while cleaning, if your neck has felt stiff for the last few days, if your knees hurt when walking up stairs these can all be resolved without ever having to do imaging. Not only does not doing imaging save you time in treatment plans, but it also in a weird way allows for some sort of relief. There have been many times when patients would come to me after getting imaging done, and they are frustrated because the images came back "normal". This is often the case especially when it is X-rays that got done for the imaging.
I want to be very clear, we are not anti-imaging here. We do believe there is a time and place for them to get done. But, we are not going to request imaging of all of our patients just because they have pain. As doctors, we should be okay with telling and explaining that to our patients, and give them the confidence that we know what is best for them. When looking for which office may be right for you, do not just disqualify an office just because they do not do imaging, they may just be better than the ones that do it on everyone.
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