Radiofrequency ablation treats chronic back and neck pain coming from the facet joints — the small joints connecting each pair of vertebrae. A specialized needle heats the tiny nerve branches (medial branches) that carry pain signals from an arthritic facet joint, interrupting the signal for an extended period. For well-selected patients, RFA delivers some of the longest-lasting relief in non-surgical pain medicine — typically 6 to 12 months, sometimes longer.
Same-week appointments are usually available.
The treated nerves regrow over roughly 6–18 months, and pain may return; the procedure can be repeated with similar success. RFA doesn't fix the arthritis itself — pairing it with core strengthening extends and compounds the benefit.
Most of the anxiety about radiofrequency ablation comes from not knowing how the visit runs. Here is the shape of it.
Tell us about any blood thinner well ahead of the appointment. Whether it needs pausing is a decision for the physician who prescribed it, and we coordinate that rather than leaving it to you. Say so too if you are pregnant or might be, if you have an active infection anywhere, if you are diabetic — a steroid can lift blood sugar for a few days — or if you have had a reaction to contrast or local anesthetic before. Eat normally unless we tell you otherwise, and bring your insurance card, a photo ID and a list of your medications.
You are positioned so the target is accessible, the skin is cleaned and numbed, and the needle is placed under imaging guidance so its position is confirmed rather than assumed. That guidance is the difference between treating the structure we identified and treating the neighbourhood around it. The procedure itself is measured in minutes; you are in the building longer than you are on the table.
Whether you need someone to drive you depends on whether any sedation is used, which we confirm when we schedule so it is not a surprise on the day. Plan a quiet rest of the day either way.
The first week or two can be a mixed picture — the treated area is often sore, and sometimes more sore than before, while the nerves settle. That is normal and it passes. Relief tends to arrive gradually rather than switching on, so judge it over weeks rather than days.
Ice the site if it is sore. Keep moving, but skip anything strenuous for a day or two unless you have been told otherwise. Write down what changes and when — how much the pain drops, for how long, and what you could do that you could not before. That record is what tells us whether to repeat, adjust or change course, and it is more useful than trying to remember at the next visit.
Radiofrequency ablation treats pain coming from the facet joints, the small paired joints at the back of each level of the spine. The selection step matters more than the procedure does, because most of the disappointment comes from treating the wrong source.
The first week or two is often sore. Aching in the treated area, sometimes a little above your usual baseline, is expected. Some people notice a patch of skin over the site that feels numb or oddly sensitive.
Relief usually arrives between two and six weeks, not immediately. The treated nerves have to stop transmitting and the irritation from the procedure has to settle. Expecting to wake up better the next morning is the most common reason people decide too early that it has not worked.
What it does not do is treat the arthritis. The joint itself is unchanged; what has changed is whether it can report pain to you. That is a reasonable trade when the pain is the disabling part, and it is not a cure, which is why the months of relief are the time to build the strength that takes load off those joints.
Ablation quiets the nerve carrying the signal; it does not change the joint or the mechanics loading it. The people who get the longest run out of it are the ones who use the quiet period for Physical Therapy and strength work rather than treating it as the end of the problem.
That is the practical reason everything sits in one building at Mountain View Pain Center. The physician who performed the procedure and the therapist working on the movement problem underneath it read the same chart, so the plan adjusts on what actually happened rather than on what someone was told at a follow-up weeks later.
Radiofrequency ablation treats pain coming from the small facet joints at the back of the spine. It does nothing for disc pain, nothing for nerve root pain traveling down a limb, and nothing for muscular pain. The diagnostic blocks that come first exist precisely to establish that the facet joints are the source — and if they do not confirm it, we do not proceed. A negative block is a useful result, not a wasted appointment.
It is deferred where there is an active infection, where anticoagulation has not been reviewed, in pregnancy because the procedure is image-guided, and where an implanted device needs the manufacturer's guidance before radiofrequency energy is used nearby — a pacemaker or defibrillator is the usual example and is a planning question rather than a barrier.
If your pain has never responded to anything and no pattern has been established, ablation is premature. The procedure works by interrupting a signal we have already proved is the one causing the trouble.
Soreness at the treated levels for several days is normal and expected — the tissue has been heated deliberately. Many people get a temporary increase in pain in the first week or two before the improvement arrives, which is unsettling if nobody warns you about it beforehand.
Other common, temporary effects: a patch of numbness over the skin above the treated area, a feeling of weakness or heaviness in the nearby muscles, and bruising.
Less common: a burning nerve pain in the treated area that can take some weeks to settle; and rarely, infection, bleeding, or injury to a nerve that was not the target. Because the treated nerves regrow, the relief is not permanent and the procedure can be repeated when the pain returns — that is a property of the treatment, not a failure of it.
Call us for a fever, for a wound that looks infected, or for new weakness that is getting worse rather than better.
Radiofrequency ablation is performed in office at these Mountain View Pain Center clinics: Northglenn, InterQuest in north Colorado Springs, Mesa, and Westgate in Glendale. Fluoroscopic guidance is available at Westgate and Mesa.
Every other clinic coordinates the procedure to one of those four. That is worth stating plainly rather than leaving you to work it out: you can start at the clinic nearest you, be evaluated there, and have the procedure itself scheduled at the site equipped for it, without repeating the workup or starting again with a new team. Your notes, imaging and plan travel with you.
If you are not sure which clinic is nearest, the clinic pages list every location in Colorado and Arizona with directions and parking.
Radiofrequency ablation is billed to medical insurance rather than paid for out of pocket. What varies between plans is not usually whether it is covered but what has to be documented first.
Most plans expect a record of conservative care before an interventional step — some combination of Physical Therapy, Chiropractic, medication and time — and many require prior authorization on top of that. This is the main reason a procedure gets delayed, and it is avoidable: the documentation is built as you go rather than assembled in a hurry at the end.
We are in network with most Medicare Advantage plans; call to confirm yours. Workers' compensation is accepted at every location, in both states, across Pain Management, Physical Therapy, Chiropractic and Acupuncture, and auto injury claims are handled through med-pay or a lien we hold directly. Referrals are not required for any of it.
Your benefits are checked in advance — before the visit, not after. Nobody should find out what something costs afterwards. See insurance for the plans each state's clinics bill directly, and ask about any plan that is not listed.
Every clinic below has Chiropractic, Physical Therapy, Acupuncture and Pain Management on one chart, so care can move between them without a new referral.
Downtown out through the north, west, south and east suburbs.
Academy, InterQuest and Tenderfoot cover the north, central and south of the city.
Harmony in Fort Collins and our Greeley clinic serve Larimer and Weld counties.
Across the Valley, from the West Valley through Phoenix to the East Valley.
Most successful patients get 6–12 months; repeat treatments tend to work as well as the first.
No — needle-based, no incision, home the same day.
Because RFA on the wrong joints helps no one. Blocks are how we make sure you're in the group this works for.
No. You can request an evaluation directly. The pathway to ablation usually runs through diagnostic blocks first, which is what confirms we are treating the right joints.
Yes in most cases, and insurers generally require documented diagnostic blocks beforehand — which is also the clinical reason to do them. We verify benefits before scheduling.
They can regenerate over time, which is why relief is measured in months rather than being permanent. The procedure can be repeated when the pain returns.
The nerves targeted carry pain signals from the joint rather than controlling muscle, so strength is not the intended trade. Tell us immediately about any new weakness or numbness.
Sensation returns gradually and the pain may come back with it. The procedure can be repeated, and the interval between them is one of the things tracked in the record so the plan is based on your own response rather than an average.
Chronic (3+ months) axial low back or neck pain, worse with extension or rotation; facet arthritis; and persistent post-whiplash neck pain, where facet joints are a common culprit.
RFA only works when the facet joints are truly the pain source, so we never go straight to ablation. First you get one or two diagnostic medial branch blocks — a small dose of numbing medication at the target nerves. If the block gives significant temporary relief, that confirms the diagnosis and predicts the ablation will work. If it doesn't, we just saved you a procedure that would have failed — and we go looking for the real source.
Serious complications are rare when performed image-guided by trained physicians. Common and minor: temporary soreness, a short-lived pain flare, facial flushing, or elevated blood sugar in diabetics for a few days. We limit steroid injections to a sensible number per year and always weigh them against your overall picture — tell us about blood thinners, infections, or diabetes.
In-office, under X-ray guidance, with local anesthetic (light sedation available where appropriate). The physician positions the RFA needle at each confirmed nerve, tests placement with stimulation before treating, then heats each site for about 90 seconds. Expect 30–45 minutes. Soreness for up to 1–2 weeks after is normal — full relief often arrives after that settles.
It is performed in office rather than referred out to a surgical center: radiofrequency ablation in Denver (Northglenn), radiofrequency ablation in Colorado Springs (InterQuest), and radiofrequency ablation in Phoenix (Mesa and Westgate).
Each page sets out who the procedure is for, what the appointment involves, and how it is billed.
Radiofrequency ablation is performed at our procedure clinics — Northglenn, InterQuest, Mesa and Westgate — and every MVPC clinic can evaluate you and book it; see the full clinic map, Colorado or Arizona.
