Sciatica

Symptoms of Sciatica Pain

Sciatic nerve pain is often described as shooting or stabbing. Other patients say it is more like a dull ache or a pins and needles sensation. Patients who see us for it can have pain that travels from the lower back to the toes. Most frequently, the pain travels down the back of the legs.

In addition to shooting pain down one or both legs, sciatica can cause loss of function in the thighs, legs, and toes. Patients can develop tingling or burning sensations that make it challenging to feel sensations in their lower bodies. This reduced sensory function can be hazardous for patients with diabetes since they might not feel a cut or scratch that can lead to a potentially severe infection. Sciatica nerve issues can also cause weakness, so everyday tasks can become difficult.

One of the most challenging aspects of treating sciatica is how it can vary across patients. The pain can range from mildly disturbing to intensely debilitating. Sciatic nerve issues can also flare intermittently or become a constant problem. No matter which level or frequency patients experience, sciatica always significantly impacts their quality of life.

How Chiropractic Works to Eliminate Sciatica Pain

Chiropractic for sciatica pain focuses on addressing sciatic nerve pain at its source. Since the spine surrounds the beginning of the sciatic nerve, keeping it in proper alignment can reduce or eliminate nerve compression. In chiropractic medicine, we call any deviation in the spine that interferes with nerves a subluxation. Eliminating subluxations addresses sciatic nerve issues at their source.

Another guiding principle of chiropractic medicine is the body’s remarkable healing ability. We don’t just “crack your back and send you back” the way you came in at West Suburban Wellness. We work to help you live a better life, optimizing nutrition, movement, and sleep. We also believe that strong social networks of family and friends, mindfulness-based relaxation practices, and many other lifestyle factors play an essential role in excellent health, so we focus on helping you incorporate these research-proven elements into your life.

Sciatica Treatment

Here at West Suburban Wellness, our chiropractors help patients live better lives, not just get relief from pain. Relieving pain, however, is where we begin. In our experience, patients need to have less pain before they can pay attention to improving other areas of their lives.

Since we target the source of pain, our chiropractic sciatica treatments vary from patient to patient. We have outlined some of our more popular options below but always welcome questions from prospective or current patients.

Custom Therapeutic Exercise Plan

We prescribe exercise to all our patients because it is one of the most effective ways of building strength and flexibility. Muscles that are coordinated and balanced provide stable support, so the spine remains supple and free to move. When muscles aren’t in balance, spinal subluxations are more likely to occur.

While chiropractic adjustments help our patients feel better, exercise ensures they continue to get healthier. Consistently performed exercise helps the body form enough muscular support to maintain healthy spinal alignment. We assess our patients when they sit, stand, and move to analyze their movement patterns and muscle tone. Then, we design a comprehensive therapeutic exercise plan to provide our patients with the most opportunity to build muscle where they need it most.