Sciatica is something we see at Cable Beach Chiropractic very regularly! It can happen to anyone, from football players to pregnant people, and it can be very painful!
Sciatica is pain originating from your sciatic nerve in your lower back. It causes sharp, electric, shooting pain down the back of your leg, sometimes all the way to your ankle. It can be very painful, often feeling like burning, shooting or electric pain. However, this sharp, shooting pain isn’t always true sciatica.
True sciatica means that there is pressure on the sciatic nerve. The sciatic nerve starts at the base of your lower back, from the bottom 2 spinal vertebrae and the sacrum (the wedge-shaped bone of the pelvis).
This pressure can be caused by several things, including a bulging disc, dysfunction of some of the joints in the area leading to compression, a bone spur, or sometimes even super tight muscles creating a reduction of the space that the nerve has to move through.
When there isn’t enough space for the nerve to pass through —> pain!
What isn’t sciatica?
A very common condition that mimics sciatica is piriformis syndrome.
Your piriformis is a triangle shaped muscle that goes from your sacrum, across your butt, and attaches to the back of the top of your thigh bone (the femur).
The sciatic nerve passes through the middle of your butt muscles. In most people it passes underneath the piriformis muscle. In some people it passes over the top, and in very few people it actually passes through the piriformis muscle.
If the piriformis muscle becomes very tight or spasms, it can then compress the sciatic nerve, creating that sharp shooting pain down the back of your leg!
How do I know if I have true sciatica or piriformis syndrome??
At Cable Beach Chiropractic in Broome we will ask a bunch of questions relating to how the pain started, exactly where it is, and exactly what it feels like. We will then examine you, including looking at how far your spine can move in certain directions, feeling the tension of your muscles, looking at any spinal tilts or rotations, and performing orthopaedic and neurological tests, which are tests which help us narrow down which structures are involved.
Every test and movement that your Broome Chiro performs during an examination means something to us, enabling us to give you a proper diagnosis.
Certain positive tests and findings may mean we can proceed straight to treatment. Other positive tests and finding may mean you need some imaging before we can treat, e.g. an X-ray, CT scan or MRI.
Why does it even matter?
The diagnosis we land on matters as it affects your prognosis (how quickly you’ll get better), the advice we give you e.g. avoiding heavy lifting, and the exercises we give you.
For example, if you have true sciatica from a suspected disc herniation, we might send you for imaging plus give you certain exercises to help start reducing the disc irritation.
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