Gateway Midwest Healthcare treats Creve Coeur patients for degenerative disc disease, facet joint pain and neck pain, with radiofrequency ablation once the joints are confirmed by block. The office is about fifteen minutes away, so the plan follows the clinical picture rather than the drive.
Creve Coeur is close enough that a full course of treatment is a normal part of the week rather than a project.
Is neck and back pain just part of getting older?
Most of what we see from Creve Coeur is not acute injury. It is degenerative neck and back pain in people who are still working, still active, and increasingly limited by something they have been told is simply age.
Age-related change is real and it is also nearly universal, which makes it a poor explanation on its own. The useful question is which of the age-related findings is actually generating the pain, and that is answerable.
The roads around Creve Coeur, and what they send us
Olive Boulevard and I-270 carry Creve Coeur, with a dense corridor of office and medical employment along Ballas and New Ballas.
Two things follow from that layout. Stop-start commercial strips generate the low-speed impacts that strain facet joints without fracturing anything, and long daily drives generate the cumulative loading that shows up as evening pain rather than as an event.
I-270 and Olive Boulevard are the arteries. Olive carries heavy arterial traffic through a long commercial stretch, which produces the low-speed rear-end impacts that injure facet joints.
What we treat most for Creve Coeur patients
Degenerative disc disease
An unfortunate name for a nearly universal finding.
Facet joint pain
Arthritis in the small spinal joints, confirmed by block.
Neck pain
Cervical pain in people who work at a desk and will not stop.
Radiofrequency ablation
Longer-lasting relief once the joints are confirmed.
How do you find which spinal finding is causing my pain?
Being told that spinal changes are ‘just age’ is accurate and useless in equal measure. Disc desiccation, height loss, bone spurs and facet enlargement accumulate in nearly everyone and correlate poorly with who actually hurts. The finding is real; the explanation is not.
The useful question is narrower: of the several age-related findings on this scan, which one sits at the level and side that matches this patient’s symptoms? A moderate finding that lines up is meaningful. A severe one that does not is noise.
Where the facet joints line up, the treatment sequence is well established — two confirming medial branch blocks, then radiofrequency ablation of the nerves supplying those joints. The joint itself is untouched; only its pain supply is interrupted, and the nerves regenerate, so it can be repeated.
Planning the trip from Creve Coeur
For Creve Coeur patients the work most often centers on degenerative disc disease, facet joint pain, neck pain and radiofrequency ablation. Each of those has its own page setting out how it is diagnosed here and what treatment actually involves, and reading the relevant one before the appointment tends to make the visit more productive.
The trip runs about fifteen minutes by I-270. Even so, we front-load the assessment, so that the first visit produces a working diagnosis rather than only a plan to investigate.
Please bring imaging, medications and a short history of previous treatments with their outcomes. Where records exist elsewhere, telling us in advance lets us request them before you travel.
Fifteen minutes supports whatever rhythm the treatment needs, so the plan is dictated by the clinical picture rather than by the drive.
We also see patients from Maryland Heights, Town and Country and Clayton. The full list is on areas we serve.
To book, call or text us. Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. We are at 12174 Natural Bridge Rd, Suite 110, St. Louis, MO 63044 — about 15 minutes from Creve Coeur, St. Louis County. No referral is needed to book and no attorney is needed to be treated after an accident.
What does degenerative disc disease actually mean?
Degenerative disc disease is a poor name for a normal process. Discs lose water content and height with age in essentially everyone, and the finding appears on imaging in large numbers of people with no back pain at all.
Being told you have it is therefore not a diagnosis so much as a description of an age-appropriate spine. What matters is whether a specific disc is generating pain, which is a different and answerable question.
Where a disc is genuinely the source, the pain has a recognizable character: deep, central, worse with sitting and loading, and often difficult to localize precisely. Confirming it may involve a diagnostic study rather than relying on the report.
Nearby: pain management in Olivette, MO.
Questions we get from Creve Coeur
I was told it is just arthritis. Is that it?
Spinal arthritis is nearly universal past middle age and correlates poorly with pain. It describes your spine; it does not explain your symptoms.
How long does radiofrequency ablation last?
Commonly six to twelve months, sometimes longer. The nerves regenerate and it can be repeated.
Will I need time off work?
No. Normal activity, including work, returns within two to four hours. There is no sedation, so most patients drive themselves home; bring a driver only if an arm or leg feels weak or numb, and only until it wears off.
Does this mean my spine is wearing out?
It means it is aging, which is universal. The finding correlates poorly with pain.
Why does my back hurt if this is normal?
Because something specific is generating pain, and identifying which structure is the useful next step.
Can you live a normal life with a degenerated disc?
Many people already do. Discs lose water content and height with age in essentially everyone, and the finding shows up on imaging in large numbers of people with no back pain at all. It describes an aging spine rather than a diagnosis. The real question is whether one specific disc is generating your pain, and that question can be answered.
What makes degenerative disc pain worse?
When a disc is genuinely the source, the pain is deep and central, worse with sitting and loading, and hard to pin to one spot. Long daily drives add cumulative loading that tends to show up as evening pain rather than as a single event. Stop-start traffic adds low-speed impacts that strain the facet joints, which is a different source of pain.
Why don’t doctors take my pain seriously?
Often because the scan shows age-related change and the conversation ends there. Being told your pain is just age is accurate and useless in equal measure: those changes build up in nearly everyone and match poorly with who actually hurts. The useful question is which finding sits at the level and side that match your symptoms. That question has an answer, and finding it is where we start.
12174 Natural Bridge Rd, Suite 110
St. Louis, MO 63044
The map loads from Google, which sets its own cookies. We do not load it until you ask.
Hurt in an accident? Start here.
You do not need a lawyer, a police report or a referral to be seen. Bring your symptoms and we will work out the rest.
Monday–Friday, 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. Same-day appointments are often available for new accident and injury patients.