North Texas Brain & Spine Specialists Sets New Bar in Patient-Centric Care

By
Steve Gamel
| Photos by
Amber Boykin
Photography

As a double board certified
neurosurgeon with more than 10 years of neurosurgical experience, Dr. Jean
Louis Benae believes in one truth: do the right thing. Those four words may
seem simple enough to follow, but they are all too often compromised in
today’s world of healthcare. Thankfully, that’s not the case with Dr. Benae.
They are at the heart of everything he and his team at North Texas Brain
& Spine Specialists try to achieve in the management of complex spine
and brain disorders and injuries.

As a result, it’s easy to see why Dr. Benae’s
services are trusted and in such high demand. Patients who desperately want
to fix whatever ails them — whether it be a herniated disc in their lower
back, peripheral neuropathy, a complex brain infection, or another
life-altering condition that continues to linger — come from near and far in
hopes of one day reclaiming the life they want to live.

“What tends to be very difficult in our field
is making sure we are always finding exactly what is causing the problem ,” Dr. Benae said. “In this process, what matters most to me is
finding the cause and providing the right non-surgical and surgical treatment
options.

“Many patients have often been suffering for
years when they come to see me, so they need my time and my
compassion.”

Meet Dr.
Benae

Dr. Benae is committed to sharing his
knowledge and helping those in need. And his journey to North Texas has been
a winding yet highly decorated road. Born in Cameroon and raised in Paris,
France, Dr. Jean Louis Benae came to the United States at age 20 to attend
the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he pursued a degree
in physiological sciences and graduated with honors. He continued his
education at the David Geffen UCLA School of Medicine and obtained his
Doctorate in Medicine. Throughout his extensive training and career, Dr.
Benae accrued remarkable versatility with complex spine and minimally
invasive spine surgery.

He is board certified and a member of various
distinguished national and international neurosurgical societies, such as the
Congress of Neurological Surgeons, the American Association of Neurological
Surgeons, the North American Spine Society, and AO Spine.

Comprehensive Surgical and Nonsurgical Treatment
Options

Sometimes, surgery is absolutely the best
path forward to resolve your unique situation. But Dr. Benae’s patients can
rest easy knowing that he doesn’t look to those methods first. More often
than not, he exhausts all nonsurgical options, including focusing on
conservative options such as light physical therapy and light interventional
pain management procedures.

“The last thing I ever intend is to perform
surgery on someone who doesn’t need surgery,” Dr. Benae said. “My intention
is to locate the origin of a person’s problem, and if surgery can be avoided,
we can steer clear of it.”

Dr. Benae is also active in the corporate
community and has been invited to speak at some of the major multinational
corporations headquartered in North Texas. He often gives talks focused on
his unique multi-specialty approach to care and preventive measures that can
be taken in the workplace to improve brain and spine health.

Minimally
Invasive Treatment

If surgical intervention is the best
approach, patients benefit from his training and remarkable versatility with
complex spine and minimally invasive spine surgery. Dr. Benae believes in
utilizing minimally invasive surgery, robotics, and spinal navigation, when
indicated, to lessen the impact of surgery and maximize the benefits so each
patient can quickly recover and return to full capacity. Dr. Benae’s clinic
is also equipped with the latest technology, including but not limited to,
the Konica Minolta digital x-ray machine which allows his team to capture
crisp images that are very helpful in diagnosing a patient’s spinal
condition. The clinic also owns a new AlterG AntiGravity Treadmill that helps
patients reduce gravity’s impact from 20% to 100% of their body weight during
rehabilitation. This means patients with multiple neurological conditions can
regain mobility and strength faster with less pain and discomfort. This means
patients with multiple neurological conditions can regain mobility and
strength faster with less pain and discomfort.

“Pain is scary and debilitating and can come
from different sources, so I partner with my patients to investigate and find
the source of that pain,” Dr. Benae said. Because of this forward-thinking
mindset, Dr. Benae can make decisions about a plan of action that will not
simply mask a person’s symptoms but rather correct the problem. Since
minimally invasive spine surgery does not require the long incisions
associated with traditional, open surgery, the muscles surrounding the spine
do not suffer extensive tissue damage.

Minimally invasive techniques have been used
for decades, and the results are typically faster recovery times and a
substantially reduced amount of pain and scarring.

Philanthropic at Heart

Dr. Benae has long been a leader in give-back
programs beyond the walls of his practice aimed at providing free surgical
and medical procedures for economically disadvantaged communities near and
far. At the forefront is the Brain Project Africa Foundation, a nonprofit he
created in 2016 to empower Africa’s healthcare system. Dr. Benae and his team
routinely spend weeks at a time in Africa treating patients with a variety of
services such as dental surgery, complex brain and spine surgery, general
surgery, and more.

According to Dr. Benae, the organization is
also responsible for donating medical equipment and supplies. And when he’s
not treating patients, he’s providing hands-on mentorship opportunities to
young leaders in the African medical community. For more information, please
visit BrainProject.co

to learn more and contribute.

If you are
looking for neck pain or back pain relief, turn to Dr. Benae and the experts
with North Texas Brain & Spine Specialists. Call their office in
Flower Mound at (469)
378-9039 or contact them online at DrBenae.com to
learn more or schedule an appointment.