Local doctor helps patients get off prescription painkillers with more targeted treatments

CLIFTON PARK, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- A local doctor is trying to educate his patients about an alternative form of treatment that can be effective when it comes to managing debilitating pain.

Before Carolyn Smith walked into Dr. Charles Gordon's pain management clinic in Clifton Park, she suffered from ongoing pain as a result of nerve damage. It affected her day-to-day life, and for nearly 14 years, she was on prescription opioids.

"It basically took the edge off the pain so that I could continue functioning," Smith said.

Her advanced degenerative disc disease forced her into an early retirement at age 60. Like many patients with chronic pain, Smith was told to manage the pain with prescription pills.

"Your body gets habituated to it. Going off that stuff is really hard," she explained.

Dr. Gordon, the medical director of New York Pain Management in Clifton Park, explained, "When you are on the opiate, that becomes your new normal. What we do is try and keep people away from medication. Any medication as best we can using procedural-type therapy."

In addition to the more commonly known epidural steroid injections, Dr. Gordon utilizes procedures like platelet rich plasma injections, nerve blockers and rhizotomy, which is a minimally invasive surgical procedure that removes the pain sensation by destroying nerve ends that carry the pain signal to the brain. Dr. Gordon explained, "We can go in, cauterize those nerves with special needles, shuts it down for six months to a year."

The procedure helped Michael Farr move freely again after a bad trucking accident. "Very life changing," he told NEWS10. "I have such a quality of life. That's a reward: the quality of life. Being able to enjoy my dogs, my grandchildren."

Smith's life has changed for the better as well. "The pins and needles -- gone after 14 years," she said. "You don't realize what it's like having pins and needles in your foot all the time."

"The more we can get away from opiates into other therapies, the better off we are individually and as a society," Dr. Gordon added.