Every level of the spine has a pair of small joints at the back that guide how you bend and twist. They carry load, they wear, and when they become painful the ache sits close to the midline and gets worse standing, leaning back, or turning over in bed. It rarely runs down a limb.
Each of those joints is supplied by tiny medial branch nerves whose only job is to report pain from the joint. They do not move anything and they do not carry sensation from the skin. That is the whole basis of this procedure: those nerves can be interrupted without costing you anything you use.
Nobody goes straight to ablation. First the medial branch nerves are numbed with a short-acting anesthetic and you are asked to go and do the things that normally hurt. If the pain drops substantially for the few hours the anesthetic lasts, the joints are confirmed as the source.
Only then is the ablation scheduled. The block is quick and its answer is unambiguous, and the reason for insisting on it is simple: it stops people having a longer procedure aimed at the wrong structure.
Both the diagnostic block and the ablation are done in office at our Northglenn clinic, 11990 Grant Street, off I-25 at 120th Avenue.
Assessment can be at any of the Denver-area clinics — Downtown Denver, Lowry, Central Park, Lakewood, Littleton, Highlands Ranch, Lone Tree, SE Aurora, Southlands or Northglenn itself. The two procedure appointments are at Northglenn, and it is the same physician throughout.
A nerve that has been interrupted this way regrows over time. 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.
The window it buys is the point. People who use it to build the trunk and hip strength that keeps load off those joints tend to go longer before the next one. People who simply enjoy the quiet and change nothing tend to come back sooner.
The area is often sore for several days afterwards, sometimes more so than before, and that settles. Full benefit usually appears two to three weeks out, which surprises people expecting an immediate change.
In Colorado most major commercial plans are accepted and we are in network with most Medicare Advantage plans. Where a collision or a work injury is behind the pain, billing runs through the auto policy, an attorney lien, or the workers compensation carrier. Assessment does not require a referral and there is usually an appointment within the same week.
Background on radiofrequency ablation, and on Pain Management in Denver more broadly.
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.
Because the first one proves the second one is aimed at the right place. The diagnostic block tells us whether the facet joints are genuinely the source.
No. The medial branch nerves carry pain from the joint and nothing else. They do not supply muscle you use or skin you feel with.
Often two to three weeks. The first week can be sorer than usual, which is a normal part of the process rather than a sign it failed.
Then the joints are not the source, the ablation is not scheduled, and the plan looks elsewhere. That is a useful outcome, not a wasted appointment.
Probably, eventually. Nerves regrow. When and whether to repeat is decided from your own pattern of relief.
In office at Northglenn on Grant Street, both the diagnostic block and the ablation itself.
Usually yes unless sedation was used. Confirm at booking so you can plan the trip back down I-25.
No. A steroid injection reduces inflammation around a nerve root. This interrupts the small nerves reporting pain from a joint, and the two are aimed at different problems.
Radiofrequency Ablation is performed in office at our Northglenn clinic. No referral is needed to be evaluated, and appointments are usually available within the same week.
