Understanding Personal Injury with Dr. Vikas Garg

Dr. Vikas Garg talks about Beyond “Toughing It Out”

Dr. Vikas Garg goes into detail about specifically Regarding on Chronic Pain, Injections, and Collaborative PI Care.

In this episode of the PIERS Association Podcast, host Roxy Cross sits down with Dr. Vikas Garg, an interventional pain specialist who has been treating spine-related pain in Utah for nearly 20 years.

Dr. Garg explains the critical difference between acute pain (the body’s useful warning system) and chronic pain that lingers, disrupts sleep, raises heart rate, fuels anxiety, and even rewires the brain’s perception of pain over time. His message is clear: when pain hangs on, it’s no longer “helpful” — it’s harmful, and it needs targeted treatment.

Together, Roxy and Dr. Garg discuss:
Why pain that lasts more than a few days — or blocks chiropractic or physical therapy — should trigger a pain management referral.
How careful diagnosis (exam, MRI, and sometimes diagnostic injections) guides the right treatment instead of masking symptoms.
The role of epidural injections, radiofrequency ablations, spinal cord stimulators, PRP, and newer procedures in auto injury and PI cases.
How early intervention can prevent chronic pain from creating long-term changes in the brain.
Practical referral cues: weakness, dropping objects, sciatica, headaches after whiplash, and pain that clearly impairs daily life.
How close collaboration with chiropractic physicians (sharing records, planning timing around injections and rehab) improves outcomes and documentation.
Dr. Garg also talks about prevention and long-term spine health: core strengthening, healthy lifestyle choices, and ongoing collaboration between pain specialists, family physicians, and chiropractors so patients can not only get out of pain, but get back to the lives they love.