The vast majority of surgeries successfully treat patients for their illnesses. Knowing this can make you feel better about an upcoming operation. You may still worry that pain will disrupt your life for years to come. Luckily, doctors have found several innovative ways to reduce patient pain. As long as your surgeon understands the latest research on reducing pain, you should find that you have a positive experience that doesn’t disrupt your life for very long.

Here are three of the most successful ways your doctor may use to reduce your pain.

Minimally Invasive Procedures

Surgery often causes a lot of pain because doctors have to make large incisions in your body. Surgeons have been trained to minimize damage while operating, but they still cut you with knives. That will leave some pain that can linger for weeks or months.

Minimally invasive surgery uses smaller incisions, so it doesn’t cause as much pain. Most minimally invasive surgeries rely on robotic assistance, so you may need to find a doctor who has been trained to use sensitive tools. Other benefits of minimally invasive surgery include lower risk of infection, reduced blood loss, and a faster recovery time, so it’s worth finding a doctor who knows how to use smaller incisions.

Better Post-Op Care

What happens after your surgery can also reduce the amount of pain that you feel during your recovery. Better post-op care can shorten your recovery time and keep you more comfortable. The best surgeons work closely with their patients to make sure they have the services they need to stay healthy after they go under the knife.

Many medical facilities now use force-air warming to minimize pain and encouraging fast healing. The benefits of forced-air warming systems like Bair Hugger have been documented in more than 170 studies. The research shows that Bair Hugger creates a healing environment for the body without increasing the risk of infection at the surgical site. When you’re choosing a doctor to perform your surgery, you may want to ask if he or she uses the Bair Hugger system to reduce post-op pain.

Mindfulness Meditation

Image via Flickr by riabaeck

Pain affects more than specific areas of your body. People who experience pain for long periods of time often develop mental health problems that exacerbate the problem. When you have long-term pain, you may start to wonder if you’ll ever feel healthy again or if you can withstand the discomfort.

Mindfulness meditation helps patients keep pain in perspective. This type of meditation teaches you to experience your body in non-judgmental ways. You may feel a lot of pain in one area, but you eventually learn to accept the discomfort instead of letting it dominate your life.

Some people dismiss mindfulness meditation as New Age nonsense, but studies show that it can reduce chronic pain by 57 percent. Try the techniques for a few weeks to see if it works well for you.

It’s impossible to predict exactly how a patient will respond to treatments, but doctors have access to a lot of research showing that these methods reduce pain in most people. Take advantage of them to have a more comfortable experience.