 Hey listeners, most people will experience back pain at some point in their lives. I know I have. Back and spinal disorders can disrupt every movement we make, but we're here today with Dr. Anthony Conti, Neurospinal Surgeon at Hackensack Meridian Health to discuss various causes and treatments for what may be causing you pain. Thanks for joining us, Dr. Conti. Thanks for having me. After let's start with, as a neural spinal surgeon, what are the most common diagnoses that you are treating? As a spine surgeon, I see a variety of patients from all walks of life who have different symptoms such as back and leg pain. I generally treat a wide variety of disorders, including mostly degenerative conditions of the spine, such as herniated disc or disc degeneration or spinal stenosis. I also treat a variety of different spine pathologies such as scoliosis or traumatic fractures or tumors within the spine itself. Wow, that looks like you've got our backs covered, so to speak. When do you suggest that patients experiencing back pain come to see you? So I think patients should come to see me when they find that different pain medications and treatments aren't working and their pain is significantly affecting their quality of life. I think that we can definitely work together to kind of come up with a comprehensive treatment plan that can help them at least manage their symptoms and get them back to the things they love to do. I think that typically patients get scared because a neural surgeon means they're getting surgery on their spine, but actually what I typically recommend first is that we approach for most patients a kind of comprehensive treatment plan that includes different treatments like physical therapy, pain management with spinal injections, or different conservative treatments like acupuncture or chiropractic therapy prior to considering surgery. It's great to know you want our listeners to not be afraid to seek help. Yeah, I agree. It's all about trying to get them their pain to a more manageable point and get them back to the things that they like to do on a daily basis. It's fantastic that you took time to talk about what can be a very painful subject when that back is feeling bad. Dr. Anthony Conti, thanks for joining us. Well, I appreciate you having me and I appreciate you letting me speak on this topic. To learn more about spine care at HackadSac Meridian Health, visit hackadsacmeridianhealth.org slash spine.