Parkinson’s patients and family members who are preparing to have surgery often have this question. The first thing to understand is that the root cause of Parkinson’s disease is an insufficient amount of dopamine in the brain, and medication is used to add dopamine directly to the brain. The medications we most commonly use, such as Methyldopa or Restnin, do just that. Secondly, it is important to realize that surgery does not stimulate the patient’s brain to produce more dopamine, so what is not enough is not enough. Due to the lack of dopamine, the original balance between various neurotransmitters (substances that transmit nerve impulses and direct physical activity) in the patient’s brain is disrupted, resulting in abnormally excitable neural activity in a specific area. Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) is a procedure that locates this location, plants electrodes into it, and suppresses the overactive nerve impulses through external electrical stimulation. So in layman’s terms, it’s like the two ends of a buckboard; the buckled end is suppressed with a stimulator, while the deficient end is still supplemented by medication. The combination of medication and surgery can restore the balance in the brain and achieve the best therapeutic results.