Pain Management
"Our goal is to decrease or eliminate pain, so patients can add life to their years and years to their lives."
In our practice, we diagnose and treat pain due to a wide range of musculoskeletal conditions including arthritis, fibromyalgia, and multiple sclerosis. Our treatments include physical therapy, medical marijuana, therapeutic injections, complementary medicine such as rubs, heat & cold therapy, and arthritis care. We also treat sports and accidental injuries.
Dr. Phillips is board certified in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and practiced at Howard University Hospital, Department of Physicians Physical Medicine in Washington, DC as an Assistant Professor, for 20 years before going into private practice. Dr. Phillips has a special interest in the musculoskeletal system to include joints, neck and back pain. He has also worked with, and provided care to multiple college and university athletes over the years.
Chronic pain is more common than you may think.
Pain Management Treatments
Physical Therapeutic Interventions
We use targeted exercise in order to affect tissue changes in the body. This is always closely monitored by your therapist or doctor directly to correct deviations in movement and to improve strength and flexibility. The number of repetitions, the direction of motion, and type of resistance may vary according to the need of the patient, and what activities are restricted. When stretching we may change the duration of the stretch and the angle to allow for effective lengthening of shortened tissues. Go back to Services.
Sports Medicine
Sports Medicine is founded in the education of the athlete, the re-education of the musculoskeletal system, the discipline of training, and injury identification.
Invested in exercise biomechanics, diagnostic physical exams, sport-specific rehab protocols, injury prevention, goal-oriented management, and gratifying outcomes. Sports Medicine encompasses the treatment of all levels of injury from sport fitness and exercise. Whether it’s the professional athlete or the “weekend warrior,” Sports Medicine comprises the totality in the safety and treatment that supports a sports career or simply an active lifestyle. Go back to Services.
Medical Marijuana
Medical marijuana is marijuana used to treat disease or relieve symptoms. Marijuana is made from the dried leaves and buds of the Cannabis sativa plant. It can be smoked, inhaled or ingested in food or tea. Medical marijuana is also available as a pill or an oil.
In the U.S. medical marijuana — also referred to as medical cannabis — is legal in a growing number of states to ease pain, nausea and other side effects of medical treatments, as well as to treat some diseases. Depending on why a person is using medical marijuana, treatment may be short term or continue for years. Read more...
Therapeutic Injections
It’s no secret that many people fear needles. However, once they get past their initial anxiety, many patients come to our office excited about their next injection. We offer several therapeutic injections at Rehabit SMARTCenter to help ease the symptoms of painful conditions such as sciatica, arthritis, carpal tunnel syndrome, tendinitis, and bursitis. These injections may also improve the symptoms of back pain, neck pain, joint pain, muscle knots, and nerve pain. The injections you choose will depend on your conditions and how their symptoms affect your life. Read more...
​
Integrative Medicine
Our practice offers a total approach to medical care that combines standard medicine with the complementary medicine practices that have been shown to be safe and effective. They treat the patient's mind, body, and spirit. Complementary and alternative medicine includes massage, acupuncture, tai chi, and drinking a variety of herbal teas. These treatments are used along with standard medical treatments to improve certain conditions. One example is using acupuncture to help lessen some side effects of cancer treatment, or introducing a special diet to treat cancer instead of anticancer drugs that are prescribed by an oncologist. Go back to Services.
Motor Vehicle Accident & Work Related Injuries
Injuries from motor vehicle and other accidents often result in a variety of complex injuries and symptoms. It is not uncommon for individuals to feel little or no pain initially following an accident and subsequently experience a variety of symptoms including stiffness, dizziness, limited mobility and pain. It is important to seek an evaluation immediately following an accident in order to limit potential long term effects associated with the trauma.
​
Some of the more commonly sustained injuries from accidents include whiplash, headaches, back pain and injuries to the neck, shoulders, knees and other extremities. We will assist you in moving better and feeling better so you can return to daily activities as soon as possible. Go back to Services.
Prescription Medications
​
Medications for addiction treatment may be prescribed as part of an inpatient or outpatient rehab program. Doctor Phillips may adjust patients' dosages during the course of treatment to ensure that patients dealing with addiction have the best chance of achieving sobriety. Go back to Services.
​
​
Our standard medical treatments include prescription medicines which can be helpful for treating many illnesses when used as prescribed by a doctor, including analgesics, anti-inflammatories, and therapeutic injections.
​
​
​
Arthritis Care
Our Pain Management and Rehabilitation Specialists take a complete medical history, order diagnostic tests and perform a careful physical examination to confirm or rule out the condition. If arthritis is indeed diagnosed, your RSC physician will work with you to determine the best treatment plan for you, based on your medical history, lifestyle, activity level and type of work that you do.
The good news is that there are many different treatments for Osteoarthritis. These treatments can range from recommendations for lifestyle and activity modifications that impact daily life, such as: exercise, nutritional supplements and the use of braces, or assistive aids, like a cane, to ordering conservative medical treatments, like prescription anti-inflammatory medications, steroid injections, visco-supplementation injections, and Physical Therapy.
If those are not effective, then Regenerative Medicine can be tried. A non-surgical intervention, this technologically-advanced treatment promotes healing and relieves pain through an injection into the affected area with a high concentration of active human stem cells. However, if RM Therapy does not provide the desired level of pain relief and restored function, surgical intervention is the next viable and successful option available, including partial and total joint replacement and spinal surgeries. Go back to Services.
Medical Marijuana
Are cannabis products or cannabinoids helpful in treating health conditions?
​
Drugs containing cannabinoids may be helpful in treating certain rare forms of epilepsy, nausea and vomiting associated with cancer chemotherapy, and loss of appetite and weight loss associated with HIV/AIDS.
In addition, some evidence suggests modest benefits of cannabis or cannabinoids for chronic pain and multiple sclerosis symptoms.
​
These are some of the specific health conditions for which cannabis or cannabinoids have been found useful based on the latest medical research:
​
-
Inflammatory Bowel Disease
-
Irritable Bowel Syndrome
-
Movement Disorders Due to Tourette Syndrome
-
Multiple Sclerosis
-
Nausea and Vomiting Related to Cancer Chemotherapy
-
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
-
Sleep Problems​
​
-
Anxiety
-
Pain
-
Anxiety
-
Helping to Decrease Opioid Use
-
Epilepsy
-
Glaucoma
-
HIV/AIDS Symptoms
Therapeutic Injections
We offer several therapeutic injections to help ease the symptoms of painful conditions, such as sciatica and arthritis.
Therapeutic injections can be used on their own, or as part of an existing treatment plan. Like prescription medications, therapeutic injections can treat pain that stems from many conditions and symptoms, including:
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Psoriatic arthritis
• Osteoarthritis
• Carpal tunnel syndrome
• Tendinitis
• Bursitis
These injections may also improve the symptoms of back pain, neck pain, joint pain, muscle knots, and nerve pain. The injections you choose will depend on your conditions and how their symptoms affect your life.
​
When people think of pain, they may picture a visible wound, however, pain often stems from swelling and inflammation inside the body, even if there’s no visible physical injury. When swelling occurs, space in our bodies becomes tight, and nerves become compressed. This can result in pain, tingling, or numbness. It can even cause a loss of sensation in some areas of the body.
Therapeutic injections help reduce swelling by delivering anti-inflammatory agents directly to the affected joint or muscle. This helps decrease excess fluid and eliminate the production of pain-causing chemicals that stem from inflammation. Facet joint injections and other types of joint injections are common anti-inflammatory treatments, but epidural injections also help reduce swelling.
​
When you take a prescription medication, you may experience relief right away, but it’s often short-lived. After a few hours, your pain returns, and you may also have nausea, dry mouth, or other unpleasant side effects from the medication.
That’s not the case with therapeutic injections. While it’s true that sometimes the results only last a few weeks, many patients experience decreased pain for months after their final visit. We’ve even had some reports of patients who are pain-free for more than a year after trying injections for therapeutic purposes.
You also have the option of returning for multiple injections over a period of time, such as a few weeks or months. This can help prevent pain from coming back quickly. Our medical team can help you figure out how many injections you need to enjoy little-to-no pain for as long as possible.
​
Health care providers often use injections for pain relief, but sometimes, injections also have diagnostic benefits. Facet point injections are a trusted diagnostic tool used by many medical professionals. When the numbing medicine makes its way into the treated joint, a patient may experience immediate relief. This helps a doctor determine whether pain originates from this joint or another one, making it easier to develop an effective treatment plan.
Facet points are the small joints that sit between the vertebra in your spine. They help your spine twist and bend rather than remaining rigid. Without facet joints, it would be difficult to perform many functions, such as walking, stretching, or lifting.
When facet joints become inflamed, they can cause pain in the neck or back, and limit movement. Facet joint injections treat this pain with local anesthetic and anti-inflammatory medications, so your body can return to its usual functions.
