Spine Surgery Doctor Reviews NYC

If you have back problems like spinal stenosis, arthritis, a herniated disc, or another condition that spinal surgery would help, it's imperative that you find a good spine surgery NYC doctor to perform the procedure. Hiring a doctor without the necessary experience, training or credentials could be disastrous, indeed. A good way to find an experienced spine surgeon is to review patient testimonials, but that's just a start. What sorts of reviews should you look for in regard to a good spine surgery NYC doctor?

• Patient reviews

You can begin your research on the Internet simply by typing in a particular doctor's name and geographic location. This will bring up a number of sites, including the doctor's own website, as applicable. If there are patient testimonials on the website, that's a good place to start - but that's not all you should look at. Certainly, positive patient testimonials are a good sign, but unscrupulous doctors may only put positive patient testimonials on their sites while leaving off bad ones - or they may even make them up, as the case may be. Therefore, while patient reviews are good place to start, don't stop there.

• Colleague reviews

If you're in the process of looking for a good spine surgery NYC doctor, there's no better place to start than with your own general practitioner. Assuming that he or she agrees that you're a good candidate for spine surgery, ask your own doctor for a referral to a surgeon that specializes in the spine.

• Internet reviews

These should be carefully researched, just as with patient reviews from the doctor's own files and/or website, but Internet reviews of a particular doctor, pulled up from Internet in general, can often give a much broader and therefore more accurate view of a particular spine surgery NYC doctor's performance, bedside manner, experience and expertise, etc. If Internet reviews taken from throughout the Internet give a particular doctor a favorable overall picture and those who have made use of his or her services are happy with the results, it's generally a pretty good bet that you will be, too.

• Friends' and family's reviews

Word-of-mouth from people you know and trust can often give you a great sense of whether or not a particular doctor is a good candidate to perform your surgery. As always, this is something you should also check out yourself, but if your neighbor is truly happy with the results from surgery performed by his or her doctor (and not just trying to give a friend some help to get a practice off the ground, for example), you probably will be.

Considerations

Regardless of the reviews offered in a particular spine surgery NYC doctor's favor, you need to make sure the following are true:

• The doctor is board certified

If you've found a particular spine surgery NYC doctor you like, check with New York State's medical board to make sure he or she has been properly board-certified. No matter how stellar the reviews of a particular doctor, don't let an uncertified doctor do any type of spine surgery.

• The doctor has had the appropriate educational background, including experience in both laser spine surgery and traditional spine surgery

Much of the spine surgery performed these days is done via laser. Laser surgery is much less invasive and has a much shorter recovery time than traditional open spine surgery, and is suitable to correct many problems like spinal stenosis, problems caused by osteoarthritis of the spine, herniated discs, pinched nerves, and so forth. The chosen doctor should have an extensive educational background and experience in both traditional spine surgery and in laser spine surgery. One such doctor is Dr. Sukdeb Datta, MD, DABPM, FIPP, DABIPP, Medical Director of the Datta Endoscopic Back Surgery and Pain Center in New York City, New York. He has treated many of these back problems safely and effectively with minimally invasive laser spine surgery NYC.