Freedom of choice is a great thing, but, when it comes to your health, how do you make sure you’re making the right choices? When it comes to choosing a Fort Worth spine surgeon to diagnose and treat your back pain, you want to make sure you’re working with the best. A few tips can help you narrow down your options.

Asking around

You can vet your spine doctor in several important ways to give you a better understanding of what the doctor is like and how qualified he or she is before you even step foot in the door. It starts by asking for recommendations.

Your primary care physician and any other doctors you might be seeing should be your first “ask.” Since they are in the industry, they may have some important insider information that can help inform your choice.

Know someone who has had back surgery or who had a great experience in treating their back pain? If not, perhaps you know someone who knows someone. Putting the word out there to friends, family, and colleagues can yield you some more referrals.

Search online

Do an Internet search. No one is going to tell you that a Google search should be the only method you use to find your spine surgeon in Fort Worth. Your health is far too important to gamble it on someone you haven’t thoroughly checked out. In this day and age, you’re obviously going to go online, so use the power of the Internet to your best advantage:

• Do a general search. Type each doctor’s name into a search field and see what comes up. A top spine surgeon should appear in numerous searches, and, hopefully, they’re all positive—but if they’re not, that’s helpful, too. Scratch any names off that raise red flags and consider yourself lucky!
• See the doctors’ websites when you’re searching? You’ll want to dig around in there, reading about their practice, their history, their qualifications, and the procedures they do. It could be that one or more of the surgeons only do traditional surgeries when you have your heart set on a minimally invasive procedure because of the lower risk of complications, the shorter surgery, and the quicker recovery. Or, maybe the stem cell procedure you’ve been reading about isn’t in their wheelhouse. You’ll also want to look for testimonials on their site to read about the experiences of their patients.
• In addition to the spine doctors’ own websites, you’ll probably see other sites in your search like HealthGrades and RateMDs where you can read through additional reviews. Checking for board certification on their websites is also important; you can double-check that here.

Ready to find a Fort Worth spine surgeon? Contact DISC Spine Institute, experts in minimally invasive treatments, the most effective medical procedures to treat and eliminate chronic back pain.