For many chronic pain sufferers, life revolves around trying treatment after treatment – from TCM, chiropractors, painkillers to buying a new chair or even mindfulness, hoping to relieve their suffering.

The fortunate ones manage to seek relief but others might find that the solace is often short-lived or worse, experience little change.

For the latter group, it can be a terribly isolating feeling.

There's the poor mood and the increased irritability you may face. Activities that you once enjoyed may cease to excite you. At work, you may face dips in performance as concentrating on tasks become near-impossible as all that weighs on your mind is pain.

What's makes it more difficult is the invisible nature of chronic pain often makes it hard for even close family and friends to empathise with your situation.

As the pain persists for months, you may feel like you're stuck between a rock and a hard place, wondering if you have to resign to a life of suffering or undergo the highly invasive surgeries you so hoped to avoid.

But there's actually another alternative treatment that can help you steer clear of both suffering and major surgery.

Hi, my name is Dr. Ho Kok Yuen,

and I hold a MBBS and Master of Medicine in Anaesthesiology from the National University of Singapore.

Thereafter, I completed my overseas fellowship in pain management at Duke University.

Today, I'm the head specialist of The Pain Clinic where I help individuals relieve their chronic neck and back pain without the need for major surgery.

I'm able to do so with a branch of medicine called Interventional Pain Management treatments that use pain blocking techniques that are able to turn off, interrupt and even destroy your nerve’s ability to send pain messages to your brain.

Minimally invasive in nature, they are able to provide substantial pain relief without the risks and prolonged rehabilitation that comes with major surgery.

While it is not a permanent solution to chronic pain - a long-term recovery plan will still require physiotherapy, proper posture & avoidance of activities that stress your affected areas, the ability of these pain procedures to provide significant pain relief in just days or weeks is often hailed as a lifesaver for patients whose daily lives have been interfered by chronic pain.

Relieve your chronic pain today

A Gold-Standard Treatment for Every Condition

Different conditions of chronic neck and back pain are best treated with specific treatments.

For example, patients who experience neck and back pain with a shooting pain are most effectively treated with an epidural steroid injection while patients with facet joint pain will benefit most from medial branch blocks.

At The Pain Clinic, we have a wide range of various treatments to enable us to provide patients relief for their chronic pains - regardless of condition and cause.

Radiofrequency Ablation

Radiofrequency (RF) ablation uses RF energy to generate heat for treating pain. Heat destroys signals within sensory nerves and effectively removes the source of pain coming from discs, joints or nerves.

Neurostimulation

Neurostimulation uses electricity to stimulate nerves or the spinal cord to block pain signals. It includes spinal cord stimulation and peripheral nerve field stimulation. Electric wires (leads) are surgically placed near painful nerves or next to the spinal cord. An implanted battery (pulse generator) is connect to these leads to stimulate the nerve or spinal cord, in turn blocking the transmission of pain signals to the brain.

Targeted Drug Delivery (Intrathecal Drug Therapy)

A small, motorised pump is implanted under the skin to deliver medications via a small tube (catheter) directly into the spine to treat severe, intractable back pain, pelvic pain as well as cancer pain. Medications used include morphine, fentanyl and local anaesthetic drugs.

Facet Joint Injections or Medial Branch Nerve Blocks

Chronic neck or low back pain can result from the tiny joints in the spine called the facet joints. This condition is called facet joint syndrome and is very common in patients with cervical or lumbar spondylosis. Steroids and local anaesthetics can be injected into these joints to reduce pain and inflammation.

Suitable for:

Neck pain (cervical facet syndrome)
Low back pain (lumbar facet syndrome)

Disc Decompression & Biacuplasty / Annuloplasty

Herniated discs can be treated using minimally invasive needles that only require a small puncture through the skin.

Removing disc material with the needle shrinks the disc and reduces the compression on the nerve.

When the disc is also causing pain, biacuplasty or annuloplasty can be performed using radiofrequency energy to destroy nerves that carry pain signals through the outer layer of the disc.

Suitable for:

Herniated discs (slipped discs)
Sciatica (shooting pain or numbness in the legs)
Discogenic pain (neck or low back pain)

Epidural Steroid Injections or Nerve Root Blocks

Epidural steroids help reduce pain and inflammation at the painful disc, or next to the pinched nerve due to disc protrusion.

Suitable for:

Herniated discs (slipped discs)
Sciatica (shooting pain or numbness in the legs)
Discogenic pain (neck or low back pain)

Trigger point injections

Chronic muscle or myofascial pain due to injury or poor posture can be annoying and lead to persistent pain and stiffness. Trigger point injections with local anaesthetics or Botulinum toxin are effective in breaking the pain cycle and restoring muscle function. Coupled with the right stretching and strengthening exercises, myofascial pain can be treated.

Cooled Radiofrequency (RF)

An innovative RF technique that allows the creation of large-volume, spherical lesions to treat nerves that cause pain. Water is circulated through the RF device to cool the needle tip while treating a much larger area as compared to conventional RF.

As with any medical procedures, there are risks such as likelihood of infection, low blood pressure, headache, nausea, injury to nerve tissue and several others.

Apart from conducting a proper patient medical assessment before any recommendations, we at The Pain Clinic believe in beginning with the most conservative treatments.

Only when treatments options have been exhausted will we recommend pain procedures to patients.

Find out if you're suitable for pain procedures today

Your Journey with Us

The first step: Finding Out What’s Causing Your Pain

We seek to learn exactly what causes your pain through a comprehensive evaluation, be it poor posture, genetics, slipped discs or degeneration due to age.

This is crucial as our pain management plan will be crafted according to your condition so as to maximise your recovery.

Some diagnostics we might carry out include:

Blood tests

Imaging studies (CT scan, MRI, X-rays, etc.)

Step two: Pain Management Plan

After finding the root cause of your pain, the next step is to come up with a conservative treatment plan that will give you the best chances of recovery.

The plan may involve:

Pain medications that help ease your current pain symptoms
Physiotherapy to help strengthen your muscle groups as a long-term plan
Ergonomics to impart to you proper postures that will help reduce stress on your neck or back
Mental health therapists to treat your depression and anxiety if present

We will then track your progress by monitoring your reduction in pain, improvements in physical function and sleep to determine if further treatments are needed.

Step three: Pain Procedures

There are two main scenarios in which Interventional Pain Management treatments will be recommended.

1. If you have tried the various treatments we recommended but experienced little to no improvement.

2. If your pain is agonising to a point where it significantly impairs the quality of your life.

In those cases, we will recommend various pain-blocking treatments based on your condition that will help relieve your pain in as fast as days or weeks.

As stressed earlier, we recommend our patients to continue receiving other treatments like physiotherapy and ergonomics for best chances of long-lasting, effective pain relief.

Relieve Your Neck & Back Suffering Today

What We Stand For

The Pain Clinic was founded as a response to ease the suffering chronic pain sufferers and help them enjoy active, healthy lives.

We adopt a patient-centric approach, focusing on all aspects of chronic pain - from physical, emotional to social, with the goal of helping you regain control of your life.

Our consultations go beyond the usual 15-minute sessions as we seek to understand your lifestyles, goals and medical history so we are able to make the most suitable recommendations.

The first pain physician to introduce cooled radiofrequency treatment for chronic pain patients in Singapore in 2006, Dr. Ho has also conducted many trainings for other doctors in South-east Asia, South Korea, Taiwan and Australia in the field of pain management.

Book a Consultation Today

It is possible to relieve your chronic pain without the need for major surgeries.

At The Pain Clinic, we can help you diagnose the root cause of your pain and address it effectively with various pain procedures.

Many patients share with us that they are better able to sleep at night, exercise, cease taking high doses of painkillers.

Like them, you can live a pain-free life too.

Simply fill up the form below to arrange for a consultation session.

*If you're suffering from unbearable pain and wish to consult us as soon as possible, we're able to schedule a fast-track consultation for you at no extra cost

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Find Us

The Pain Clinic
820 Thomson Road #07-59
Mt Alvernia Hospital Medical Centre D
Singapore 574623

Opening Hours:
Monday - Friday:
9 AM to 1 PM & 2 PM to 5 PM
Sunday & Public Holiday
Closed
enquiries@thepainclinic.com.sg

FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

My pain is unbearable - how long do I need to wait before I can seek a consultation?

Unlike public hospitals, we have a fast-track service available for individuals who are experiencing severe pain.

We may even be able to see you within a day.

Simply fill up the form above and our staff will contact you as soon as possible.

I've tried many treatments to no avail - will interventional pain management procedures work in my case?

We can’t guarantee 100% success rates, but from our experience in treating hundreds of patients, we’ve observed that nine in ten will experience significant relief after our treatments.

This is because our procedures are capable of turning off, interrupting and even destroying your nerve’s ability to send pain messages to your brain.

That being said, we still strongly recommend that patients combine treatments like physiotherapy and ergonomics together for long-lasting relief.

Will I be able to claim under Medisave for these treatments?

We are accredited by the Singapore Ministry of Health to submit Medisave claims for interventional pain procedures.

If you are a Singaporean or a Permanent Resident, you may be able to claim part of your medical expenses from your Medisave Account.

Medisave can also be used for patients themselves or for the account holders’ immediate family members i.e. spouses, parents, grandparents, children and grandchildren.

Feel free to call us for more details on the procedures that are Medisave claimable.

What about health insurance? Will the diagnostics and procedures be covered?

Similar to Medisave, many of our procedures are covered under health insurance plans. To know exactly if your treatment will be claimable, simply call us for more in-depth information.

Relieve Your Chronic Neck and Back Pain and Regain Your Active Life Fast-