When Prolotherapy Isn't Working
There are many reasons Prolotherapy may not work for you. Below are some of the most common causes we see.

1. The doctor gives you one or a few shots
Prolotherapy stimulates the body to repair painful areas. When a doctor uses a solution that causes inflammation and injects it into the body, this technically is Prolotherapy.

Prolotherapy as practiced here in Oak Park, involves lots of Prolotherapy solution and lots of injections to ensure that the area needing strengthening is treated sufficiently.

Most of the 'Prolotherapy' failures that we see are caused by patients seeing a 'Prolotherapy doctor' only to find out that they are doing one or two injections per joint when in reality they need 20-40 injections/session. More is not always better, but when it comes to Prolotherapy, in my opinion, more is better. I would not consider one or two injections into the SI joints as back Prolotherapy. Lower Back Prolotherapy at Caring Medical involves 60-90 injections.

2. Lack of Inflammation
Prolotherapy is supposed to cause inflammation. That is how it works. So if you go to a Prolotherapy doctor and get no inflammation and the Prolotherapy doctor has no remedy for it, it is time to seek out a new Prolotherapy doctor. Often this is a doctor who is only 'dabbling' in Prolotherapy.

3. Doctor is not a Prolotherapy Doctor full time
A doctor who does intradiscal radiofrequency, facet joint injections under fluoroscopy and other fancy procedures and also calls themselves a Prolotherapy doctor should raise a red flag.

After doing Prolotherapy on thousands of people, I have had only a handful of people that I have sent for these other procedures. A doctor who is skilled with Prolotherapy can get almost every low back pain case either cured or substantially helped.

4. Steroid is offered first
Imagine going to a doctor for Prolotherapy and they recommend a Steroid injection. This happens more than you think! We get the emails. If it was me, I wouldn't walk but run out of that office. This person most likely is not a Prolotherapy doctor they are an allopathic physician disguising themselves as a Prolotherapy doctor!!!

5. Not sure if a Cure can be achieved
A good Prolotherapy doctor should have a high 'cure' rate in his experience. Most would have a cure rate of around 80% for clients seen in their private practice. For folks that I don't think will get cured of their pain - I would tell them. Most that come to Caring Medical get cured of their pain.

6. Extended Prolotherapy Treatments
If after a few visits you are not getting better, have a heart to heart with your Prolotherapy doctor. If there is not good explanation, it is time to seek out of the counsel of a more experienced Prolotherapy doctor.

Do I have people who have been getting Prolotherapy for two years? I have a few, but the folks knew coming in the complexity of their cases and often there are multiple variables that we have been addressing during the time. By far and away the vast majority of clients at Caring Medical are substantially better within a few visits.

7. Prolotherapy in a hospital setting only?
Often in the hospital the doctor will do the Prolotherapy under x-ray. The cost of the treatment will be ridiculous. I did Prolotherapy under x-ray guidance when I first went into practice. What a waste of money, energy and time. It didn't help outcomes one bit. A $700 Prolotherapy treatment would end up costing over $2000. No reason for it. Typically doctors who use x-ray guidance for their Prolotherapy give one or two shots of Prolotherapy. Again, almost always this is not enough to get the people of out their pain. I would go elsewhere.

8. Prolotherapy doctor won't treat necks
When you ask the doctor why they often reply "Doing the neck is dangerous." This should be a red flag that this person is not very experienced at Prolotherapy because if they were they would be doing neck Prolotherapy everyday.

9. First recommendation - Surgery?
If there is a good reason, like you tried a few Prolotherapy treatments and your terrible hip arthritis is still terrible, then yes, get a hip replacement. But if you have a condition that generally responds great with Prolotherapy, didn't get much inflammation, and thus not much healing and then the doctor is recommending surgery, it sounds like this doctor doesn't know how to do Prolotherapy. I would get a second opinion. More about arthritis and hip pain Hip Osteoarthritis

10. No mention of proper nutrtion?
Prolotherapy depends upon the immune system to heal. It is the person’s immune system that grows the ligaments, tendons and other structures that need to be repaired to get the person out of chronic pain. A doctor who knows very little about healing is not going to be someone who gets a person’s overall health in the healing mode so Prolotherapy works better. Helping the body get healthy will aid the person responding to Prolotherapy.

We hope that this helps answer some of the questions that you have. If you would like to make an appointment with us, we’d sure be happy to help you.