Spinal Cord Stimulation: Is This Revolutionary Treatment Right for Your Pain?

Living with chronic pain can feel exhausting, especially if your pain relief medication only provides temporary relief. If pain continues to interfere with your life, you may be wondering what options are left.

For some people, the next right step might be spinal cord stimulation. It’s a revolutionary treatment that our team of specialists offers at Garden State Pain & Orthopedics.

Spinal cord stimulation helps manage certain types of chronic pain by changing how pain signals travel to your brain. Instead of treating pain with medication alone, this technology works directly with your nervous system.

If you’re struggling with chronic pain, visit us in New Jersey to find out what it can do for you. In the meantime, read on to learn more about spinal cord stimulation.

What is spinal cord stimulation?

Spinal cord stimulation uses a small implanted device to deliver mild electrical impulses near your spinal cord. These impulses help disrupt or modify pain signals before they even reach your brain.

The system includes three main components:

• Leads (thin wires)
• A small pulse generator implanted under your skin
• A handheld controller to adjust settings

Many people describe the treatment as helping “turn down” their pain signals. According to research published in 2025, people with complex regional pain syndrome (without allodynia) experienced a 81% reduction in pain. In other words, the pain isn’t completely gone, but it’s much less obstructive. 

What types of pain can it help treat?

We often recommend spinal cord stimulation for chronic pain conditions that haven’t responded well to other treatments.

It may help with:

• Chronic back or neck pain
• Nerve pain in your arms or legs
• Failed back surgery syndrome
• Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS)
• Sciatica or radiculopathy

Your Garden State Pain & Orthopedics provider determines whether your specific type of pain may respond well to spinal cord stimulation.

Getting started with spinal cord stimulation 

If you’re exploring alternative pain management methods and are curious about the spinal cord stimulation process, you may wonder how it all works. In general, it’s a three-step process.

1. Schedule your consultation

This is the first step in the process. Because spinal cord stimulation isn’t right for everyone, your consultation allows us to review your medical history, discuss your symptoms and how they impact your life, and review all of your pain management options.

You may be a good candidate if:

• Your pain has lasted for months or years
• Conservative treatments haven’t provided enough relief
• Your pain significantly affects your daily life
• The pain is nerve-related rather than structural alone

If you have an active infection or have spinal anatomy that makes it difficult to access your epidural space, this may not be the right path for you, and we can recommend other pain management options for you.

2. Schedule your trial

If, after your consultation, you want to move forward with spinal cord stimulation, your next step is to schedule your trial. 

A trial lets you test drive this treatment before we implant the device permanently. 

During your trial:

• We place temporary leads near your spine
• You test the device for several days
• You track how much relief you experience

If the trial significantly improves your pain and function, we may recommend moving forward with permanent implantation. Generally, we consider the trial a win if it alleviates at least 50% of your pain.

3. Schedule your permanent spinal cord stimulation 

Unlike the temporary trial leads, the permanent system places the leads and pulse generator fully under your skin through a minimally invasive procedure. Once healed, you’ll be able to use your handheld controller to adjust the stimulation settings as needed throughout the day.

What to expect during recovery

The trial procedure is minimally invasive and usually involves a short recovery period. If you move forward with permanent implantation, you can expect some soreness near the incision sites for a few weeks while healing occurs.

Our team provides you with specific activity restrictions and recovery instructions to help protect the device and optimize your pain relief.

Is this treatment right for you?

If chronic pain is limiting your life, it may be time to explore advanced treatment options at one of our New Jersey locations.

Schedule a consultation today to learn whether spinal cord stimulation could help you reclaim your life.

Or call the location of your choice directly: Clifton, Edison, West Orange, Hazlet, or Jersey City, New Jersey.