More than one in four Americans now live with daily pain, according to a 2025 U.S. Pain Foundation survey. The instinct is to wait it out, hoping the ache fades on its own. Instead, pain often lingers, spreads, or disrupts your sleep, signaling that you might need treatment beyond a heating pad.
Dr. Brandon Claflin of Oklahoma Interventional Spine & Pain explains how to recognize when discomfort has crossed that line. The right interventional specialist can change the entire course of your recovery when treatment gets started the right way.
How Common Is Chronic Pain Today?
Pain that sticks around is far more widespread than most people assume. Roughly 60 million people now report living with chronic pain, the highest prevalence ever recorded in the U.S. Knowing you are not alone matters, but the more useful takeaway is that persistent pain is treatable and rarely something you have to accept.
With effective and well-established treatments available across Oklahoma, you don’t need to live with pain every day. Your first step is simply understanding what your body is really trying to tell you and taking the right steps to get back to normal life.
When Does Everyday Pain Signal a Bigger Problem?
Most aches are temporary and improve with rest and time. But when pain lingers past the expected healing window, your body is often signaling something worth investigating. Dr. Claflin points to a few clear patterns that separate a passing strain from a problem that warrants professional attention:
- Pain that lasts a few weeks: Discomfort beyond the expected healing time often points to an underlying issue.
- Pain that radiates into a limb: Aching that travels into an arm or leg can indicate a compressed or irritated nerve, a pattern commonly associated with conditions such as radiculopathy or sciatica.
- Numbness, tingling, or new weakness: These are recognized signs of nerve dysfunction, distinct from muscle strain, and important to evaluate early before the underlying cause progresses.
- Pain that interrupts sleep or movement: Difficulty sleeping on one side, standing for more than a few minutes, or getting through a normal day without compensating around the pain are signs that something structural deserves a closer look.
Spotting these patterns early gives you greater treatment options and helps minor problems resolve before they grow.
Why Does Nerve Pain Get Worse at Night?
Nerve-related pain often feels sharper at night, as certain sleeping positions compress already irritated nerves. The absence of daytime distractions also makes it more noticeable.
Sciatica is a common culprit, affecting roughly 40% of people at some point in life. Episodes of nerve pain at night often point to a compressed nerve root, and the location where you feel it most is rarely where the problem originates. That distinction matters; treating the symptom without finding the source is why so many patients stay stuck in a cycle of temporary relief.
If nerve pain is consistently pulling you out of sleep, don’t push through it. That pattern gives a specialist the clinical detail needed to locate the source accurately and recommend the right targeted treatment.
Physicians offering interventional pain management in Bartlesville and across northeastern Oklahoma see this presentation regularly and can often identify the root cause within a single evaluation.
When Should Back or Neck Pain Prompt a Specialist Evaluation?
Some back and neck pain resolves with rest and basic care, so how do you know when to involve a specialist? Pain that fails to improve after several weeks, returns repeatedly, or arrives with neurological symptoms deserves professional attention.
Understanding when pain requires specialist evaluation can spare you months of guesswork and put you on a faster path to relief. Dr. Claflin notes that early diagnosis, often guided by imaging or nerve testing, enables targeted treatment.
How Do Interventional Treatments Target Pain at Its Source?
Dr. Claflin notes that most patients arrive at Oklahoma Interventional Spine & Pain after months of managing symptoms without ever identifying what’s actually causing them. That’s where interventional pain medicine differs: the entire approach is built around confirming the source before any treatment begins.
Dr. Claflin, who has performed interventional procedures since 2011, starts conservatively with physical therapy and lifestyle changes, then moves to minimally invasive treatments only when your situation calls for them.
The goal is to restore movement and comfort so that the overwhelming majority of patients can avoid more invasive surgery. Each procedure uses imaging guidance to reach the exact nerve or joint responsible, so treatment is precise rather than approximate. Common interventional options include:
- Epidural steroid injections: Anti-inflammatory medication delivered directly to the epidural space near irritated spinal nerves. Effective for disc-related and nerve root pain.
- Radiofrequency ablation: Targeted radio waves disrupt the specific nerve transmitting pain signals, offering longer-lasting relief for facet joint and SI joint conditions.
- Medial branch blocks: Diagnostic and therapeutic injections that numb the small nerves responsible for transmitting facet joint pain in the neck or lower back.
- Spinal cord stimulation trials: A temporary implanted device tests whether electrical stimulation can interrupt persistent pain signals before committing to a permanent solution.
Because every treatment is matched to a confirmed source, patients aren’t guessing. They’re following a plan built around their specific diagnosis. For most people, that process starts with a single comprehensive evaluation, and Dr. Claflin’s team can typically see new patients within one to two weeks.
Take the Next Step Toward Lasting Relief
Relief from ongoing pain is possible, and a few practical steps can move you forward when your pain has lingered.
Find out what is causing your pain through a comprehensive evaluation and ask about minimally invasive options suited to your diagnosis. A specialist like Dr. Claflin can build a personalized plan focused on restoring your daily function.
You don’t have to treat pain as your new normal. With the right specialist and an accurate diagnosis, relief is realistic, and the clearer path forward can start with a single conversation.