Non-surgical Spine And Joint Pain Management

Oklahoma Center for Orthopedics and Sports Medicine

OKC Office:
3110 SW 89th St. Suite 200c
Oklahoma City, OK 73150
Phone: (405) 759-2663
Fax: (405) 759-3827

Norman Location:
In progress---call the Norman Regional Hospital Switchboard
at (405) 307-1000 for updates.

ABOUT DR. RITA's PRACTICE: 
Are you frustrated because you STILL HURT....even after spending big money on doctor visits, physical therapy, x-rays, MRI's, blood tests for arthritis, and injections to your spine and other joints? If so, I may have some good news for you. There are NON-surgical, NON-addictive, and very affordable treatments for pain that are being offered in my practice. The treatment is called "Osteopathic Manual Medicine (OMM)." It is a hands-on technique that decreases tension in painful body parts, often decreasing or even eliminating the need for oral medical management.

I may be able to help you with manual medicine (or other treatments) if you have any of the following:

• Pain that is NOT explained by imaging studies like X-ray, MRI, CAT scans, bone scans, etc.
• Pain that does NOT show up on blood work, like on tests for arthritis, gout, etc. 
• Pain that occurs in the spine and/or joints and tends to "bounce around" from one place to another. I.e., one day your neck hurts, then something seems to "pop" or "shift," and a few days later, your neck is fine but your hip or low back or some other body part hurts. 
• Headaches that aren't related to menstrual cycles....especially if you had head trauma in the past...or if you wore braces when you were younger or had a difficult (forceps) birth. 
• Jaw pain
• Spine or joint pain that occurs after motor vehicle collisions or other trauma, especially if imaging is negative for fractures. 
• Knots in your muscles, especially knots that "shoot" pain to other spots when you press on them. 
• Numbness and tingling in your arms or legs that other doctors can't explain (because your imaging studies and nerve testing don't show anything wrong). 
• If you are on addictive pain pills and want some other treatment, instead, so you can get off of the pills or decrease your need for them. 
• If you have been told that you need some sort of orthopedic or neurological surgery and want to try less aggressive treatment. 

Are you beginning to think you're just "imagining your pain," since nobody has been able to help you so far? If that's the case, let me have a look at you. While it's true that stress and emotions absolutely can make pain worse (and who doesn't have stress of some kind?)...there's often an actual PHYSICAL underlying basis for your pain that your stress may simply be making worse. If I help you with that underlying physical pain, maybe you'll feel better in general, in spite of your stress!

Other Services and Treatments Offered (if manual medicine alone isn't enough to help you): though the vast majority of my patients do very, very well with non-invasive and inexpensive OMM manual medicine treatments, occasionally, patients need more aggressive treatment and/or testing. In those cases, I can help you with:

• Electrodiagnostic "EMG" nerve tests to discern if you have pinched or irritated nerves, such as when you have unexplained numbness and tingling, or to see if you have nerve or muscle diseases. 
• NON-steroid, soft tissue injections known as "trigger point" injections (to calm down the painful knots in your muscles).
• Joint injections with steroids and joint lubricants (on rare occasion). 
• Live-action-x-ray-guided spinal steroid injections, known as "epidurals." 
• Second opinion from a NON-surgical muscle and joint specialist....(If a NON-surgeon tells you that you've run out of non-surgical options, then you know your last hope may be surgery). 
• Ordering blood tests to see if you have a disorder like Rheumatoid Arthritis, Lupus, or other "metabolic" conditions that can cause body pains.

Services that I do NOT offer: 

• Transfer from other doctors' care for narcotic pain-pill management. If you are looking for a doctor to simply write prescriptions for narcotic or other addictive pain pills, or if you're looking for an addiction specialist to wean you OFF of narcotics, please continue your search. I will not at any time be available to help with those aspects of your care--even if your other pain-pill-prescribing doctors discharge you from their practices. Instead, I seek to deliver more lasting pain management solutions with non-medicinal approaches (OMM, soft tissue injections, etc). With that said, I do offer "second opinions" for patients that OTHER doctors are treating with narcotics, and I accept patients that OTHER doctors are weaning off of narcotics, as long as those other doctors continue to hold responsibility for the pain-pill-portion of your care.   

If you have questions about whether you may be helped by my care, feel free to call my office and ask!

I look forward to doing my best to try to help you!