Procedure Not Recommended
Dangerous & Temporary Pain Relief
⚠️ While pain medication can provide temporary relief, Deuk Spine Institute does not recommend it as a treatment for chronic back or neck pain.
UNDERSTANDING THE TREATMENT
Pain medications are prescribed for chronic back and neck pain due to a combination of medical limitations and financial incentives.
Shotgun approach — doctors prescribe pain meds when they can't identify the root cause of chronic back or neck pain.
Lacks the expertise or equipment to treat the actual source of pain — disc injuries, facet joint degeneration, or piriformis syndrome.
Writing a prescription takes seconds compared to spending time on proper diagnosis, imaging review, and patient education.
Financial relationships between doctors and drug manufacturers create incentives to prescribe branded medications over curative treatments.
Monthly refills guarantee recurring office visits and copays — a steady revenue stream that curative procedures would eliminate.
Referring to a spine specialist means losing a patient's ongoing prescription revenue. Keeping patients on medication keeps them in the practice.
MEDICATIONS PRESCRIBED
Five categories of drugs commonly prescribed for chronic back and neck pain — none of which treat the underlying cause.
Reduce muscle spasms but cause drowsiness, dizziness, and dependency. Do not address the spinal injury causing the spasm.
Highly addictive pain blockers. Risk of overdose, organ failure, and death. Responsible for over 80,000 deaths per year in the US.
Anti-inflammatory drugs (ibuprofen, naproxen) that reduce swelling temporarily. Long-term use causes stomach ulcers, kidney damage, and bleeding.
Suppress inflammation short-term but cause diabetes, high blood pressure, bone loss, and immune suppression with prolonged use.
Gabapentin, Lyrica — block nerve pain signals. Cause cognitive impairment, memory loss, lethargy, weight gain, and withdrawal symptoms.
MECHANISM OF ACTION
These medications attempt to block pain at its inflammatory source (anti-inflammatories: NSAIDs, steroids), or the transmission of pain signals along nerves (opioids, GABA analogues), or secondary muscle spasms (muscle relaxers). None of them treat the actual source of pain — the damaged disc or arthritic joint. They mask symptoms while the underlying condition continues to worsen, creating a cycle of escalating medication doses and diminishing relief.
CRITICAL DANGERS
Six reasons why relying on pain medication for chronic back pain is dangerous and ultimately futile.
1
Your body automatically becomes less sensitive to pain medication the longer you take them. Tolerance is due to faster clearance and less tissue responsiveness to a drug the body is repeatedly exposed to. This means you need higher and higher doses to achieve the same effect.
2
All drugs have unwanted side effects; some occur immediately while others build up over time. Common side effects include cognitive problems, slow thinking, memory difficulty, lethargy, lack of motivation, weakness, high blood pressure, and diabetes.
3
Long-term medication use leads to serious medical complications: dependence, stomach ulcers, bleeding disorders, kidney failure, liver failure, and many other life-threatening conditions that compound the original pain problem.
4
Both psychological and physical addiction to pain medication is common. Opioids are particularly dangerous — the addiction crisis has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. Once addicted, stopping medication causes severe withdrawal symptoms.
5
Pain medication can be abused and used inappropriately. Patients may take higher doses than prescribed, combine medications dangerously, or share prescriptions — all of which increase the risk of overdose and death.
6
Ultimately, pain medications cannot cure pain. The effect of medication is temporary and lessens over time, making medications less effective the longer they are used. The underlying condition continues to worsen untreated.
WHAT WE RECOMMEND INSTEAD
Instead of masking symptoms with drugs, Deuk Spine Institute offers three minimally invasive procedures that treat the actual source of chronic pain — with no medication dependency and permanent results.
Our procedures address the damaged disc or arthritic joint directly — the actual source of 85% of chronic back and neck pain that medication ignores.
A single procedure can eliminate pain long-term — not just mask symptoms for a few hours per dose. No more pill dependency.
No drugs needed means no addiction risk, no organ damage, no cognitive decline, and no tolerance buildup. Your body remains drug-free.
95% patient satisfaction, 0.01% complication rate, and over 1,300 successful procedures performed by Dr. Deukmedjian.
Feature
Pain Medication
Deuk Spine Treatments
Approach
❌ Masks symptoms with drugs
✅ Treats the source of pain
Duration
❌ Temporary — hours per dose
✅ Long-term pain elimination
Side Effects
❌ Addiction, organ damage, cognitive decline
✅ Minimal — 0.01% complication rate
Treats Source
❌ No — disc/joint injuries untreated
✅ Yes — laser repairs disc, plasma treats facet joints
Dependency
❌ Lifelong prescription dependency
✅ Single procedure
Risk of Death
❌ Yes — opioid overdose, organ failure
✅ Virtually zero
Quality of Life
❌ Diminishes over time
✅ Restored
Cost Over Time
❌ $10K–$50K+ per year in medications
✅ Single procedure cost
Organ Impact
❌ Kidney/liver damage common
✅ None
Long-term Outcome
❌ Escalation to stronger drugs or surgery
✅ Pain elimination
STOP MASKING THE PAIN
Deuk Spine Institute offers three minimally invasive procedures that eliminate chronic pain at its source — no medication, no addiction, no side effects. A single treatment can restore your quality of life.
Patient Satisfaction
Complication Rate
Successful Procedures
