How To Know if Your Back Pain Has Become Chronic

More than 51 million American adults live with chronic pain, and slightly more than 17 million are coping with high-impact pain that has limited their lives. If you take this statistic and combine it with a 2021 study that found that 39% of Americans report back pain, you realize that chronic back pain is a common problem.

As our name suggests — Revive Spine & Pain Center — our team has considerable expertise when it comes to back pain of any kind, including both chronic and acute. 

So if you’re dealing with a back issue and you’re wondering whether this is your new normal, read on to explore what we consider to be chronic pain when it comes to your all-important back.

Chronic pain by the numbers

Technically, chronic pain is any pain that lasts for three months or more, but this simple explanation doesn’t quite cover the issue.

For example, let’s say that you come to see us with back pain that you’ve been struggling with for a couple of weeks, and we find that it’s tied to lumbar spinal stenosis. This is a degenerative condition, which means you don’t have to wait until the three-month mark for us to label it chronic.

So the three-month rule of thumb for determining chronic pain is a good guideline, but there are plenty of exceptions to this rule.

Common back problems that become chronic

On a global scale, back pain affects about 619 million people, and this includes chronic and acute problems. Some examples of temporary back conditions include:

• Muscle strains
• Ligament sprains
• Herniated discs
• Muscle spasms
• Vertebral fractures

In most of these cases, these conditions heal and the back pain goes away.

Unfortunately, many people develop back issues that are degenerative in nature, which means they’re going in the opposite direction of healing. These conditions include:

• Lumbar spinal stenosis
• Facet joint arthritis
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Spondylolisthesis
• Ongoing nerve compression issues like sciatica
• Osteoporosis
• Degenerative disc disease

To give you an idea about how prevalent these conditions are, especially as you age, consider that almost a third of people have some degeneration in their discs by the age of 35, and this number jumps to 90% of people by the age of 60.

Outside of wear-and-tear issues in your spine, another road to chronic back pain comes with congenital issues, such as a curvature or deformity in your spine that was present at birth.

Is your back pain chronic?

You might think that if you’ve been struggling with back pain for months with no improvement, or it’s getting worse, it’s likely you’re dealing with a chronic issue. This isn’t necessarily the case. 

Your pain might be due to the fact that you haven’t sought treatment for what we might consider an acute problem.

Our point here is that the only way to determine whether your back pain is acute or chronic is to come see one of our spine specialists for a comprehensive evaluation. This intervention may also prevent an acute problem from becoming chronic, so it’s well worth your while to have us check you out.

For expert treatment of your back pain, please contact us at one of our New Jersey locations in Marlton, Hamilton Township, Northfield, or East Brunswick to schedule an appointment.