Your sciatic nerve is rooted in your lumbar spine, or the vertebrae of your lower back. Along with the network of smaller nerves that branch off it, your sciatic nerve extends through your hips, buttocks, and down each leg, where it helps you to feel and control your lower body. Symptoms of sciatica often appear in the form of numbness, tingling, burning sensations, and sharp stabbing or shooting pain. Dr. Jason Leavitt and the medical team at Ultimate Health Medical Clinic are experts at treating sciatica, the potentially disabling pain that radiates along the sciatic nerve. If you’re looking for sciatica treatment in Littleton, request an appointment online, or call the office today to schedule your free, no-obligation consultation.
What causes sciatica and sciatica nerve pain?
Sciatica may start as a bothersome pain in your lower back, but it can quickly become the kind of debilitating pain that radiates down your legs, reaching as far as your calf. It happens when something is compressing or impinging on your sciatic nerve where it’s rooted to your spine. Some of the most common causes of sciatic nerve pain and impingement include:
- Disc problems: When trauma causes an intervertebral disc to bulge or rupture, it can put pressure on the sciatic nerve
- Spinal stenosis: A narrowing of the spinal canal, which sometimes comes with age, can push on the sciatic nerve
- Spinal compression or misalignment: Having lower-back vertebrae that are even slightly out of alignment can crowd the sciatic nerve root
- Piriformis syndrome: When the piriformis muscle, which is situated directly over your sciatic nerve, becomes too tight or spasms, it can put pressure on the sciatic nerve
- Injury: Any injury along the nerve’s path, such as a pelvic fracture, may cause sciatica
Although it’s possible for sciatic nerve pain to radiate down both of your legs, it usually only affects one side of your body at any given time.
What does sciatica pain feel like?
The top sign of sciatica pain is an intense shooting pain that extends from your lower back down into your buttock, through the back of your thigh, and as far as your calf. The sciatica pain, which is sometimes described as a kind of burning sensation, may be a mild, ongoing ache, or a sharp, electric-like jolt. While it’s possible to experience sciatic nerve pain at any isolated point along the path of the nerve, sciatica is more likely to follow an uninterrupted path. It often gets worse after long periods of sitting or standing and can be triggered or exacerbated by reaching, sneezing, and other minor movements.
What does sciatica treatment entail?
Sciatic nerve pain may begin gradually, but it usually intensifies over time and may even become long-term or long-lasting if it’s left untreated. But the good news, however, is that chiropractic for sciatica often responds well to a combination of high-quality chiropractic care, deep tissue sciatic massage, and specific stretching exercises as part of physical therapy. Depending on the exact nature of your problem, traction therapy, and flexion-distraction therapy may also help. Both of these treatments help decompress the spine, which helps alleviate pressure from bulging or ruptured discs. These sciatic treatment methods have been proven to reduce pain, further recovery, and produce beneficial results for many sciatica patients.
If you’re looking for the best chiropractor for sciatica, we invite you to call our Littleton office today. We take most major health insurance plans and work with a number of patients to treat sciatica effectively.
Read more about our how our Littleton chiropractor office can help treat sciatica.
