subject: For The Relief Of Painful Sciatica Call A Killeen Chiropractic Clinic [print this page] At a Killeen chiropractic facility you can get relief from sciatic pain without the use of drugs or surgical procedures. Sciatica is an agonizing condition that affects the body's largest nerve, namely the sciatic nerve. When it is inflamed, pain can affect the patient's pelvis, hips, buttocks, feet and legs.
Sciatica can often occur during an automobile collision. However, people with bad posture or those who are overweight can also suffer with the condition. The pain is caused when the spinal cord pushes on nerve roots that run to the sciatic nerve. Patients can lose their mobility in severe cases.
Spinal abnormalities like spinal stenosis (constricted spinal canal), or bone spurs caused by arthritis, tumors, and pregnancy can bring on sciatica. The level of pain varies from person to person, but it usually occurs down one side of the body. The sufferer may also experience numbness, burning, tingling and sharp pains in the hips or legs.
The chiropractor will first need to establish the seriousness of the condition. He or she will examine the patient physically and review past medical history. To help in the diagnosis, the chiropractor can use electro diagnostic testing, X-rays, a MRI scan, or a CT scan.
Once the diagnosis and cause have been established, the chiropractor can start appropriate treatment. If a misaligned vertebra is causing pressure on the sciatic nerve, the chiropractor can re-align it during a spinal manipulation. This will relieve the pressure. To ease pain and inflammation in the legs or pelvic region, ice therapy may be applied.
A Killeen chiropractic professional may also use TENS therapy for sciatica. This stands for Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation, and it involves the electrical stimulation of the nerves to reduce pain and spasms. TENS is used in many areas of medicine. Another popular treatment for sciatica is ultrasound, during which heat is penetrated into the body tissues.
