Dr. Mahoney's expertise lies in surgical cases, and those seeking comprehensive, non-surgical care might be disappointed. While he readily refers patients to PT and eventually pain management (which requires an MRI for an injection), I found his approach to be rather limited. He did go over the x-rays, though I dislike this trend of the x-rays being ordered by anyone but the doctor.
No immediate solutions were offered other than continuing with Aleve and Tylenol (up to 3,000 mg a day). Not even a handout in the online portal about home exercises. If you take two Aleve a day for a while, he suggests taking a PPI like omeprazole. Dr. Mahoney does not do injections himself and did not offer anything for short-term pain relief (no meds, no handouts, no suggestions about ice, heat, or topical applications like capsaicin, BioFreeze, or Voltaren).
To be fair, I would have been in less pain by doing a self-referral earlier to PT (such as to AZOPT in Prescott and Phoenix), pain management, or even a chiropractor or local dispensary. I am using my inversion table and elliptical machine more and just bought a used Total Gym for $50. I also see there is the wide kinesthetic tape for back pain (KT Tape Pro Wide) which is placed horizontally, which can help with my scoliosis and extra weight. Something else from the PT world are those big yoga balls that can double as a chair.
Reason for 1-star: Dr. Mahoney's policy of addressing only one complaint per visit, while understandable from a time management perspective, is frustrating for new patients trying to make sense of multiple interconnected problems, especially since we are only told of this policy after driving 2+ hours to see him. As my chief complaint was back tension on the left side, it seemed he did not want to hear at all about my neck tension on the left side or ulnar-nerve tingling (worse on the left side), despite my scoliosis being a contributing factor to all three possibly. Even the PT referral he wrote mentions nothing about my neck. read more