“Pain specialist” is not a protected term. Physicians from anesthesiology, physical medicine, neurology and psychiatry all treat pain, and so do practitioners with no formal pain training at all. If you are trying to work out who to see, the distinction that matters is not the label — it is the training behind it and what the practice is actually equipped to do.

What a pain specialist is supposed to do

The job is diagnostic before it is therapeutic. A pain specialist should be able to tell you which structure is producing your pain — a disc, a facet joint, a sacroiliac joint, a specific nerve, or a sensitized central nervous system — and should be able to demonstrate it rather than assert it.

That is what separates a specialist from a prescriber. Anyone can escalate a medication. Establishing that the pain is coming from the L4 medial branch nerves, and proving it with a diagnostic block before committing you to anything longer-lasting, requires imaging equipment, procedural training and a willingness to be wrong.

When it is worth seeing one

Pain that has lasted longer than about six weeks without a clear trajectory toward resolution
Pain that returned after surgery, or never resolved despite a technically successful operation
Injections that have not worked, which usually means the wrong target rather than a failed treatment
Escalating medication that produces less relief than it used to
Burning, electrical or shooting pain, which behaves like nerve pain and rarely responds to anti-inflammatories
A scan that does not match your symptoms in either direction

Board certification, and how to check it

Certification is verifiable, and you should verify it. Dr. Gurpreet Singh Padda, MD, MBA, MHP holds five American board certifications, including interventional pain and anesthesiology, and the certifying boards publish their diplomate registries publicly. The full list, with certificate numbers and NPI, is on our pain management doctors page so you can check it independently.

Ask any practice you are considering the same question: what is the physician certified in, and by which board? A practice reluctant to answer that plainly is telling you something.

Questions worth asking on the first call

Will a physician perform the procedure, or someone else?
Is imaging guidance used, and which kind?
What happens if the first treatment does not work?
Is the goal to reduce my medication, or to continue it?

That last question matters more than most patients realize. This practice reduces opioid burden rather than sustaining it, and says so up front.

What we do

Padda Institute is an interventional practice with offices on Woodson Road in St. Louis and on Natural Bridge Road in Bridgeton. We use ultrasound and fluoroscopic guidance for diagnosis and treatment, and we treat the metabolic and inflammatory drivers alongside the structural ones. The procedures themselves are described on our interventional pain management page, and the broader picture on our pain management in St. Louis page.

Speak to a pain specialist

Call (314) 481-5000 or request an appointment. Same-day appointments are available for acute pain. We are licensed in Missouri and Illinois.

Pain Specialist in St. Louis, MO