Decompression
 What is sciatica?
One of the most common reasons for seeking chiropractic treatment is sciatica.
A patient who suffers with this horrible problem feels sharp pain that travel along the entire length of the involved leg and very often pain reaches the heel and toes. Pain is accompanied with numbness tingling and weakness of the muscles. Pain could be so strong that completely demoralizing the patient and force the patient to be a bed rest.
One of the most common signs of the sciatica is little or no back pain but very severe leg pain and numbness.
Normally sciatica is the result of the bulging lumbar disc, or bony arthritic protrusions inside the lumbar spine. These types of sciatica are the most common and most unfavorable for treatments. Also 25-30% of sciatica occurs because of the inflammation of the piriformis muscle. Since the sciatic nerve runs through the piriformis muscle any inflammation process or spasm of the muscle could lead to the compression of the sciatic nerve. This kind of sciatica is very favorable for treatment and very often could be resolved with simple exercise.
Since sciatica is solely the compression of the sciatic nerve, treatment of sciatica mainly constitutes decompression therapy. Decompression or we can call it traction works as a constant pumping action that create negative pressure inside the vertebral joint, and forcing the slip disc back to the place. The decompression procedure is operating by a computer and is very safe and does not cause any unpleasant sensations or pain. The computer is programmed based on the patient’s weight and is constantly supervised by a technician.
Decompression is prescribed along with PT modalities and massage 3-4 times a week for 5-6 weeks.
The patient is positioned on the table face up or down. Position depends on the patient’s pain level and ability to lay down for 15-20 min.
If you have any questions
please contact Dr. Skolnik at (855) 553-3047
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