Facet joints are located at the back of your spine and help control how your spine moves. Like any joint in the body, facet joints can become painful when they degenerate or become injured.

If you’ve been referred to our clinic for a facet injection it is to address the pain you are feeling at this location. While we can’t change the shape or condition of your facet joint, we can inject medicine using imaging technology to a precise location with the goal of alleviating pain. If there is a question about which facet joint is causing the pain we will inject freezing   into the suspected area to see if there is a change to the pain you feel. Over the next 6 hours we ask you to note your pain in a pain diary, which will help us know when we’ve found the facet that causes your pain. We will then have you come back and inject it with medicine, usually corticosteroid, which should provide 3-6 months of relief.

While 3-6 months of relief from pain is nice, now is the time to act! By using this window of pain relief to address muscle weakness and posture issues that are major contributors of your facet pain, you will begin to offload your facet and find even more pain relief. The physiotherapists at Vivo Cura Health can help you with this effort.