1. Before Consenting to
Laser Spine Surgery

2. Before consenting to laser spine surgery, or spine surgery of any
kind, do everything you can to make absolutely sure that the
procedure is essential for you to find relief from pain and other
symptoms. Elective surgery should always be the last resort, and
there are many other methods available for symptom relief for
those who know where to look and who to ask.
In truth, the research is not that complicated. Your primary care
physician or spine specialist, if you are consulting one, will almost
certainly recommend that you seek relief through a regimen of
conservative, nonsurgical treatment methods before you move on
to researching your surgical options. And although it might not be
easy, the secret to most people’s success with conservative
treatment is no secret at all – they followed instructions, and they
stuck to it.

3. Results Take Time and Patience
As mentioned, avoiding laser spine surgery or any kind of
surgery by using conservative treatment methods for
symptom management is not necessarily easy. In
fact, depending on how severe and debilitating your
symptoms are, regaining a sense of normalcy in the face of
back or neck pain and other symptoms might
be one of the biggest challenges of your life.
Greet it as a challenge, rather than a burden,
and know that it takes time, hard work, and
a lot of patience to achieve meaningful relief
without surgery. The upshot? You won’t have
to undergo surgery.

4. Seek Another Opinion
All that said, there might come a time when conservative treatment
simply is not adequate. If symptoms remain debilitating after
several weeks or months of conservative treatment, it might be
time to find out if you are a candidate for laser spine surgery.
Before you do, though, go to another doctor and seek a second
opinion. No matter how much you trust your current physician or
physical therapist, there is always the chance that he or she might
have overlooked something in the diagnosis. Or, perhaps another
doctor might be able to suggest a conservative treatment method
that was eschewed or overlooked by your doctor. Either way, an
additional medical opinion will go a long way toward providing you
the peace of mind that comes with knowing you did everything you
could to avoid surgery.

5. Find the Right Surgical Center
If you cannot avoid laser spine surgery, be sure that you find the
right place to undergo it. Start by asking your primary care
physician for suggestions. Then move on to
friends, family, neighbors, and the Internet.
When you conduct a Google or Bing search for a particular surgical
center, be sure to include qualifying terms such as
[reviews], [complaints], [patient comments], and [cost]. Don’t take
everything you read as gospel; keep in mind that there might be
unscrupulous competitors trying to hurt the reputation of an
otherwise reputable surgical center by spreading falsehoods online.
Then again, a pattern of unsatisfactory reviews might mean it’s
time to look elsewhere.

6. Find the Right Surgeon
You might think that finding the right facility for your laser
spine surgery and finding the right surgeon go hand in hand.
It’s not always that simple, though. It could be that the center
you like doesn’t have a surgeon on hand who is adept at the
particular kind of procedure you require. Or a surgeon whose
reputation is great when it comes to your type of surgery is
employed at a facility that is farther away than you would like
to travel. The bottom line? Choose a surgeon whose
experience, skill, outcome history, and bedside manner match
your expectations. If you can find someone like that, chances
are, he or she works in a reputable and attractive facility.