Facet Joint injections are used to treat chronic neck and back pain caused by facet joint deterioration due to trauma or arthritis.

Facet joints are part of your spine, linking each vertebra together and providing support. Each facet joint is inside of a joint capsule, which holds many nerves. Medial branch nerves leave your spinal cord via gaps between your vertebrae and facet joints. These medial branch nerves deliver pain signals to your brain from those facet joints.

When you receive a facet joint injection, the injection can decrease pain in the joint capsule by preventing your body from continuously producing chemicals causing inflammation. Additionally, these injections cause sensitivity in pain receptors to decrease, therefore decreasing the frequency of pain signals being sent to your brain.

Medial Branch blocks are also a type of injection that target the nerves residing outside the facet joints. They blood C fibers activity within nerves, and limit the ability of nerve fibers to send pain and inflammation to the joint.