Surgery alternative for chronic pain

Enfield, Connecticut (WTNH) - Do you have persistent pain that you can't seem to shake? When medication doesn't work many people turn to surgery. But there is a less invasive option.

Chronic pain affects millions of Americans. Now a non-surgical technique is available, offering another alternative to traditional pain management methods.

This one impacts the soft tissue and helped a Connecticut woman get off her medications.

Kristina Zack suffers with chronic pain and she looks forward to her sessions at Enfield Health and Wellness Center.

"My neck is really stiff,” Zack said. “It’s hard for me to hold my head up to drive and its locking up as I turn to the left."

Zack was in a car accident that left her with severe whiplash and a minor concussion.

Her physical therapist describes the technique, "I'm just giving her some light pressure, working with her light tolerance, making sure it’s not too painful for her."

Melissa Doten is trained in a rehabilitation method typically used by professional athletes that is now available for patients like Kristina Zack.

“We use a lot of multi-directional patterns,” Doten said.

It's called the Graston Technique .

Doten explains, "Graston Technique is soft tissue massage with a tool."

It attacks deep into the soft tissue using stainless steel beveled-edge tools.

"You break your finger. You see a doctor. He resets it. We see the soft tissue. It's already damaged. We're resetting that. So we're breaking that soft tissue for it to heal again properly."

"It actually feels more relief than pain,” Zack comments.

"Normal tissue fiber should be all parallel and that’s what the Graston is restoring, the tissue to parallel fibers,” Physical Therapist Melissa Doten continues. “So you're scanning it through the tissue, taking the tool to spread it all out."

Before treatment Kristina could barely move without extreme pain.

"I couldn't turn my head. I couldn't look down for a long period of time if I was holding a book.”

Kristina is still in pain, "but Graston has opened it up. And I say I'm about 70 percent better than I was and I'm able to function more normally."

Kristina tells News 8’s Jocelyn Maminta had she not found relief, reconstructive surgery was possible, as well as being on disability.