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K. Dean Reeves, M.D. Clinical Associate Professor Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Emphasis on Research in Use of Prolotherapy (Also called Regenerative Injection Therapy) ReevesOffice @ gmail.com Office Email DeanReevesMD @ gmail.com Personal email
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How many treatments will I need? Dr. Reeves uses the Hackett approach to prolotherapy which is typically very comprehensive. For this reason few areas are missed in treatment and two trial treatments are usually enough to determine if the treatment will be of benefit. Exceptions include athletes that are actively engaging in contact sports or high force activity during treatment. Typically those areas which have hurt less months or years resolve first and we taper out treatment as the more stubborn areas start responding. There are those conditions in which all cartilage has been lost already in a joint such as the knee in which wear and tear of everyday living may require a treatment every 3-4 months, but our goal is always to restore tissue enough toward normal that repeat visits are only with trauma or some unusual event. If you do not notice any improvement after two treatments, we would discontinue treatment. However it is very important to realize that prolotherapy is diagnostic as well as a therapeutic treatment. This means that if prolotherapy does not help it may very well be that there is an undiagnosed problem that needs to be identified. Therefore, be sure to check with Dr. Reeves or your prolotherapy practitioner about this possibility in the event additional testing is needed. Surgery is not needed often in patients receiving prolotherapy, but occasionally it is and referrals from your prolotherapy physician can often save a lot of time in obtaining surgery when it is truly necessary. For those few patients who need surgery, prolotherapy prepares them by addressing other pain problems unrelated to the need for surgery, simplifying decision making by the surgeon and typically allowing a smoother recovery from surgery.
What about prescribing narcotics? Typically patients do not need narcotic pain medication after treatment except perhaps that evening, or the next day. Patients typically receive a prescription for a limited amount of post injection pain medication. Pain flares lasting more than a week should be reported to us. We may need to see you back in the office to review the situation rather than just covering up a pain flare with medication. For those patients already taking chronic narcotics, Dr. Reeves will not take over prescribing and refilling them for you. We only prescribe a limited amount to take on top of the chronic medication already being taken. This clinic focuses on pain elimination/ reduction, not pain management. Dr. Reeves has a colleague that does pain management if that is what you need, or the approach you want to take for pain. Elimination or reduction of pain sources is the purpose of Dr. Reeves' approach.
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To contact us: General questions --> reevesoffice@gmail.com
Billing related questions --> reevesbilling@gmail.com
Research related questions --> DeanReevesMD@gmail.com
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