Pain Management

Long-term pain can wear down your sleep, mood, and daily life. In Dubai, our pain medicine teams combine medicines, physiotherapy and psychological support in one plan. An interventional pain service adds injections and other procedures for pain that comes from a specific nerve or joint.

What is pain management?

Pain management, also called pain medicine, focuses on pain itself when it lasts beyond the normal healing time, usually more than three months. It treats persistent pain, such as back pain, arthritis, nerve damage and cancer, using medical, physical, and psychological approaches together. A pain specialist reviews and adjusts your care over time as the pain changes. It's different from the speciality that treats the underlying cause, such as orthopaedics or neurology. The two often work side by side.

When should you see a pain specialist?

Book an appointment if you notice:

• Pain that has lasted more than a few months and is not settling
• Back, neck or joint pain that limits everyday activities
• Burning, shooting or numb pain from a nerve
• Pain after surgery or an injury that has not gone away
• Pain that disturbs your sleep, mood or ability to work

New back pain with loss of bladder or bowel control, or numbness around your genitals or back passage, is an emergency: go straight to your nearest emergency department.

You don't need to wait until pain is severe. If pain is starting to shape your daily choices, or the treatments you have tried are not helping, a pain medicine specialist can look again at the cause and the options. In the UAE you can often book an appointment directly, though some insurance plans ask for a referral from your doctor first.

What to expect

At your first appointment, the specialist asks about your pain: where it is, how it feels, what makes it better or worse, and how it affects your sleep, movement, and mood. They examine you and review any previous scans or test results. Sometimes the specialist arranges an imaging test, such as an MRI scan or X-ray, to look at the spine or a painful joint. Nerve tests can also show how well a nerve is working.

There's rarely a single fix, so treatment usually combines several approaches. It may include medicines, physiotherapy, and exercise, and psychological support to help you cope with pain and stay active. Where pain comes from a specific nerve or joint, a targeted injection or radiofrequency treatment may help. Your specialist explains the options, weighs the benefits and risks with you, and agrees the next step together.

Pain management at Mediclinic

At Mediclinic, we provide a dedicated interventional pain medicine service within our hospitals. Because long-term pain rarely has a single cause, our pain physicians draw on several specialties, from anaesthesia to psychology, to assess your pain from different perspectives.

For pain arising from a specific joint, nerve, or the spine, treatments may include image-guided injections, nerve blocks, and radiofrequency treatment. When pain does not respond to these approaches, options such as spinal cord or dorsal root ganglion stimulation may be considered.

These treatments are combined with medicines, physiotherapy and psychological support, so your care is tailored to your individual needs rather than relying on one treatment alone. Where opioid medicines are appropriate, they are used carefully and responsibly, with regular review of their benefits, risks, safety, and ongoing need.