Having chronic lower back pain can significantly lower your quality of life. With it, you may be experiencing pain, reduced range of motion, and mobility limitations. These can impact your life in a serious way. Plus, conditions that are responsible for back pain are progressive. This means without any meaningful intervention, they will worsen as time goes on.
Anyone who has lower back pain knows the toll that it can take on them. The good news is that decompression therapy is a long-lasting solution that can help relieve your pain and restore your quality of life.
Our team can offer you a wide range of solutions and treatments for issues that affect the spine, including spinal stenosis. Spinal stenosis occurs when the spaces in the spinal canal narrows, compressing the nerves and resulting in symptoms like:
- Lower back pain
- Numbness
- Tingling
- Weak extremities
The symptoms will depend on the area of the spine that is affected. Narrowing the lumbar spine will typically result in lower back pain while narrowing the upper part of the spinal canal (cervical spine) usually causes neck pain.
The early stages of lumbar stenosis will rarely cause symptoms and many people tend to continue to lead normal lives and are usually unaware that they have the condition. However, other individuals can be less fortunate. The narrowing results in irritating the sensitive nerve roots, which branch out from the lumbar spine, causing pain and problems with sensation.
Some conservative treatments to help alleviate symptoms are typically the first step. This can involve:
- Corticosteroid injections
- Pain relievers
- Physical therapy
Decompression therapy comes into the picture when conservative measures fail to give the patient adequate relief. Your doctor might recommend spinal decompression therapy to help create space in the spinal canal and relieve symptoms associated with spinal stenosis.
Your doctor will use a minimally invasive technique to help relieve pressure on the nerve roots in the spinal canal. The procedure will involve inserting a small device that creates space in the vertebrae and gently stretches the spine. This stretching will relieve the pressure on the spinal canal in order to help each vertebra have more room to bring you relief.
The procedure is performed on an outpatient basis and it will generally take about 30 minutes. Spinal decompression is very safe and the tissue surrounding the spine will be unharmed. Many people should expect a significant improvement in their symptoms for up to 48 months after the procedure.
For more information on how you can achieve long-lasting relief with spinal decompression therapy, contact us today to set up an appointment.