Let’s face it. When you have back or neck pain, you’re looking for answers. The more pain you have the more desperate you become to find a solution. It’s easy to be in so much pain that you’ll trust whoever you reach out to first. While it might seem easy to make a quick decision on a spine doctor to evaluate you, when it comes to back and neck pain, you must be cautious because ANY surgery on your spine is deadly serious business. Having the wrong surgeon or the wrong surgery can and often does set into motion a domino effect where, instead of relief, you continue to have pain and may even need further surgeries. The reality is that 95% of patients don’t realize that there are a lot of spine and back surgeons who will recommend and perform surgeries you don’t need, do surgeries that are far more invasive than necessary(because they get paid more), or have financial relationships with personal injury attorneys with an understanding that the surgery(and the bill) needs to be dramatic to make a «better» suit. Do any of those things sound like they are in your best interest as a patient? Hardly! I’m fortunate enough to have both a medical background and a sales/marketing background and understand all of these factors working against patients who are in pain to find someone they can trust. Recently, a long standing issue related to one of my discs became painfully acute. Knowing the reality of the above details, I wasn’t going to trust anyone to evaluate this until I had done due diligence. After considerable investigation looking into every surgeon in Miami-Dade claiming to be the«expert,» I opted on having a consultation with Dr. Jonathan Glottlieb. His clinical background and credentials were at the highest levels and his record with the governing body for medical doctors was spotless. After meeting him in person, I can further attest that he’s chosen to «take the high-road» when it comes to only recommending to patients what they really need versus what’s typical with the other surgeons. He spent adequate time taking my history and examining me. He answered all of my concerns, made a recommendation both for the short term(in my case conservative therapy), and reviewed the likelihood of needing to a surgical step in the future. Based on my research of other surgeons in the area, I can tell you most would have immediately recommended a surgery that wasn’t necessary. Yes, there may be a consultation fee not covered by insurance but wouldn’t you rather invest in someone’s expert knowledge to tell you the truth and for your own peace of mind?