Even the slightest movement sends pain shooting from your lower back into your buttocks, perhaps even extending down into one of your legs. The hallmark pain that’s associated with sciatica can be considerable, and you want answers sooner rather than later.
The lifetime prevalence of sciatica is very high — about 40% — but this large number also means that we’ve had plenty of time to figure out what works best to relieve this common back condition.
Given the pain that comes with sciatica, you also want a solution that won’t first add to the problem, as surgical intervention likely would. The good news is that surgery is rarely recommended for sciatica, and the odds are very high that the team here at Neuropathy & Pain Centers of Texas can bring you relief far less invasively.
To wit, here are three noninvasive treatments that can help you put your sciatica in the rearview mirror.
Before we dive into some of our noninvasive treatment options for sciatica, let’s quickly review what we’re up against.
The sciatic nerve is the largest nerve in the human body. It starts in your lower back, where it splits in two and travels down the back of your buttocks and into each leg, all the way down to your feet
With sciatica, something presses against the nerve in your lower back, which can lead to back pain in the area of the nerve compression, as well as symptoms that travel down the nerve. These symptoms include pain, numbness, and tingling.
In many cases, sciatica is a result of degenerative disc disease (DDD), which affects as many as 40% of Americans. With DDD, the discs lose moisture and flatten out, which can irritate nearby nerve roots, such as those associated with your sciatic nerve.
Now, let’s look at some of the noninvasive ways we can ease your sciatic pain.
When you think of lasers, you might think of intense heat, but there are also cold versions of this technology that can do wonders with soft tissues. More specifically, we turn to a cutting-edge, robotic laser system called the M6 MLS® (multiwave locked system).
This cold laser therapy, which is also referred to as low-level laser therapy, delivers low-intensity laser energy into your damaged tissues to initiate and speed the healing process. The energy isn’t enough to heat the damaged disc, but, instead, the disc absorbs the light energy and uses it for healing.
Your M6 MLS treatments, which only last for a few minutes each, are not only noninvasive, but they also don’t cause you to feel much of anything while we deliver the energy.
Another great approach for dealing with sciatica, now and in the future, is through physical therapy (PT). Your spine hardly works alone and relies on strong core muscles for support. If these muscles are weak, you’re far more at risk for disc issues, including sciatica.
With PT, we help strengthen your core muscles, which takes a good deal of pressure off the vertebrae and discs in your spine. By beefing up this support, you can not only relieve the compression of your sciatic nerve now, but you can also prevent the painful condition from recurring down the road.
As you can see, you are not without options when it comes to sciatica. You can also take over-the-counter medications like ibuprofen to help manage your sciatica symptoms while we work on the more sustainable and noninvasive solutions we outlined above.
If you want the path of least discomfort for treating your sciatica, we invite you to contact one of our locations in Waco, Arlington, Wichita Falls, and Fort Worth, Texas, today to schedule an appointment. Call us or send a message online.
