Who Do You See For Back Pain

Learn About The Different Back Pain Specialists

When a back problem occurs, it’s typically a good idea to first consult with a primary care physician. This doctor will conduct an initial exam and, depending on the findings, he or she may refer you to a spine specialist.

If you are referred to a specialist for chronic back pain, it will likely be to one of the following:

Taming The Pain Of Sciatica: For Most People Time Heals And Less Is More

Despite being a less common cause of low back pain, sciatica is still something I regularly see as a general internist. Primary care doctors can and should manage sciatica, because for most individuals the body can fix the problem. My job is to help manage the pain while the body does its job. When a persons symptoms dont improve, I discuss the role of surgery or an injection to speed things up.

Who Gets Back Pain

Anyone can have back pain. You may be more likely to have back pain because of the following:

• Fitness level: Back pain is more common among people who are out of shape. You may also get back pain if you exercise too hard after not being active for a while.
• Obesity: If you are overweight or obese, it can put stress on the back and cause pain.
• Job-related risk factors: Jobs that require heavy lifting, pushing, pulling, or twisting can injure the back. A desk job may also play a role, especially if you slouch or sit all day in an uncomfortable chair.
• Age: You may have more back pain as you get older, particularly after you turn 45.
• Family history: Your genes play a role in some disorders that cause back pain.

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Treatments For Back Pain From A Specialist

A GP, specialist or physiotherapist may recommend extra treatments if they do not think your pain will improve with self-help measures alone.

These may include:

• group exercise classes where you’re taught exercises to strengthen your muscles and improve your posture
• manual therapy treatments, such as manipulating the spine and massage, which are usually done by a physiotherapist, chiropractor or osteopath
• psychological support, such as cognitive behavioural therapy , which can be a useful part of treatment if you’re struggling to cope with pain

Some people choose to see a therapist for manual therapy without seeing a GP first. If you want to do this, you’ll usually need to pay for private treatment.

Surgery is generally only considered in the small number of cases where back pain is caused by a specific medical condition.

When To Visit The Er For Back Pain

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• When to Visit the ER for Back Pain

While many people tolerate occasional aches and pains in their back, severe back pain may indicate a larger problem. But how do you know if your back pain, or that of a loved one, has reached the point that it requires an emergency department visit?

If at any point you feel that your condition is serious enough that it can’t wait for a visit with your primary care physician, you should visit the emergency department. However, if you’re not sure whether your back pain requires emergency care, consider these guidelines.

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Highly Specialized Spine Doctors Can Help Restore Your Pain

Whether youre rafting down a river or simply bending over to feed your cat, all it takes is one wrong move to injure your spine and suddenly feel a jolt of pain. If you have difficulty standing, walking, or turning without feeling back pain, then it may be time to visit Premier Bone & Joint Centers. Our board-certified and fellowship-trained spine doctors have the expertise to resolve your back woes so that you can return to the life you want to live, free of back pain.

When Should I See A Chiropractor For Back Pain

You should see a chiropractor if youve had chronic back pain. If youve never had back pain before, chronic could mean something different to numerous people, but the best tell would be if back pain had not gone down in a week or more.

If at-home back pain treatments dont work in conjunction with resting, the problem most likely wont go away until such a specialist has checked it out.

Secondly, you should contact a back pain chiropractor as soon as possible if your severe back pain starts to travel to different parts of the body. Pain that shoots down your leg, especially down the foot, betrays a condition more serious than a strained muscle.

You could have slipped a disc or damaged a nerve. Worse, there could be a threat of cancer that you wont know until you have a lower back pain chiropractor or doctor check you out.

Another instance in which you should go to the chiropractor is if numbness, weakness, or tingling accompanies your back pain. This could be a sign of nerve damage or something else as equally severe. The pain could travel to your legs, different areas in your back, or elsewhere in the body since the spine is the central nervous systems hub.

Pain at certain positions is another reason to call the back doctor chiropractor. If youre fine standing and walking around but feel excruciating pain while bending over, somethings not right, and you should call your doctor.

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S To Take Immediately After A Back Injury

1. Engage in an Active Activity

You need to continue to your regular activities, but you may have to limit some tasks that aggravate your lower back muscles and cause pain.

Resting can cause you back to heal even slower and prolong your back pain, so make sure you do some type of activity to speed the healing process.

Walking and moving is an easy activity for anyone, so you need to continue those activities to help improve your health, but lifting and contact sports may need to be put on hold.

If you are moving and have to carry large boxes you may have to count yourself out and get the help you need to finish that activity without causing you more pain or injuring yourself even more.

The same thing with contact sports, you need to step back and support your team from the sidelines until you back is feeling better so you don’t put yourself in even more pain.

2. Ice-Heat Treatment

The rotation of ice and heat is usually a treatment that will help most people, but going it in the right ways is important for you to get the results you want.

Only use ice for the first 72 hours of your back pain. After that time period, you need to add heat to the rotation for your lower back pain.

The combination of the ice and heat allows you to reduce inflammation and loosen muscles at the same time, returning you to full health.

What!

How do carbs affect pain in your spine?

Dont worry too much back pain doesnt last too long for most injuries.

4. Call Your Doctor

When To Consider Sciatica Surgery

Sciatica pain is no joke. Originating in your lower back, it can radiate down your hips, buttocks, legs, and even into your feet. Its estimated that about 40 percent of people will experience sciatica over the course of their lives, and for some, it can be quite debilitating. Though most cases will resolve over time, persistent or severe sciatica often requires some type of medical intervention. But how do you know if your sciatica is significant enough to warrant surgery? Here, well discuss some important signs you should consider saying yes to surgery.

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Can Lower Back Pain Be Related To Weather

If you feel like your lower back pain worsens on days when its cold or the weather is changing, you are not imagining things. Back pain can indeed be related to barometric pressure and outdoor temperature. Changes in pressure can sometimes cause pain in arthritic joints, including the spine. Muscles and joints in general react to the environment, which can make them stiffer and more likely to suffer an injury.

How Is It Treated

Most low back pain will improve with basic first aid, which includes continuing to do light activity such as walking, and taking over-the-counter pain medicine as needed.

Walking is the simplest and maybe the best exercise for the lower back. It gets your blood moving and helps your muscles stay strong.

Your doctor or physiotherapist can recommend more specific exercises to help your back muscles get stronger. These may include a series of simple exercises called core stabilization. Strengthening the muscles in your trunk can improve your posture, keep your body in better balance, and lower your chance of injury.

If your symptoms are severe or you still have symptoms after 2 weeks of self-care, see your doctor. You may need stronger pain medicines, or you might benefit from manual therapy.

Each of the various treatments for back pain work for some people but not for others. You may need to try different things to see which work best for you, such as:

• Spinal manipulation.
• Massage.
• Acupuncture.

Having ongoing back pain can make you depressed. In turn, depression can have an effect on your level of pain and whether your back gets better. People with depression and chronic pain often benefit from both antidepressant medicines and counselling. Counselling can help you learn stress management and pain control skills.

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Relax And Stay Positive

Trying to relax is a crucial part of easing the pain as muscle tension caused by worrying about your condition may make things worse.

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Although it can be difficult, it helps to stay positive and recognise that your pain should get better. People who manage to stay positive despite their pain tend to recover quicker.

Living Well With Sciatica

Many people find that having sciatica is a pain in the butt literally and figuratively. It can stop you from doing everything you want to do, and that often limits activity and can lead to being more sedentarya ripple effect that can have negative impacts on all aspects of your health. If youre experiencing even minor symptoms, get checked by your doctor, suggests Dr. Abitbol.

The longer it goes on, the more difficult it is to treat, so there is no point in waiting to see if it gets better even though your symptoms are worsening, he says, adding that if youve gone for six months or longer, and your symptoms are getting worse, even surgery may not be as gratifying as it could have been at an earlier point. Dr. Abitbol suggests that to prevent issues related to prolonged compression, address the problem as soon as you can.

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What Should I Avoid Doing If I Have Sciatica

Avoid putting added pressure onto your lumbar spine and sciatic nerve as much as possible. Activities such as sitting with bad posture, heavy lifting, difficult or strenuous exercise, and sitting or laying down for prolonged periods can aggravate your body.

Be sure not to rest too much when you have sciatica, as your back can weaken and worsen your pain. With this in mind, dont ignore your pain signals or fight through them. Taking a few minutes to sit down and let your pain pass is perfectly okay.

Why Does My Back Hurt

There are various causes of back pain, including muscle pain with or without muscles spasms, disc pain, joint pain, or nerve pain. In most cases, these are not harmful or dangerous.

Muscle pain is the most common acute back pain. The period of acute pain is usually limited and may be treated at home or by primary care doctors. Sometimes, these patients may be referred to doctors who specialize in back pain. Some back pain can be a symptom of a more serious problem, like a fracture, infection, or cancer in the spine, said H. Michael Guo, MD, a Duke physiatrist who specializes in spine care. These patients should be seen by spine doctors. Fortunately, spine infections and cancer are very rare and usually only affect people with special risk factors. Spine fractures are also rare and may be associated with thinned spine bones or injuries.

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Should I Go To An Orthopedic Doctor For Back Pain

But if the pain is severe, ongoing, or accompanied by other symptoms such as numbness or tingling in your arms or legs, it may be time to see a back doctor. Start with someone who specializes in nonsurgical treatment for back pain. This can include a physiatrist, chiropractor, or orthopaedic physician assistant.

Symptoms To Look Out For

The sciatic nerve starts at the lower back, through the buttocks, and down each leg, and if its pinched, pain occurs in those areas. If you believe you have sciatica, some common symptoms to be aware of include:

• Pain radiating down one or both legs and feet
• Your legs or feet feel weak or numb
• A burning or tingling sensation in your legs and feet
• Pain when standing up or sitting down
• Inability to rest your weight on one leg
• Wobbly knees

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When The Hip Is The Usual Suspect

Surprisingly, hip problemsusually produce groin pain on the affected side. Thats because the actualjoint of the hip is near the spine.

Groin pain is a hip issue until proven otherwise, says back pain specialist Russell DeMicco, DO. Pain above the belt line is not a hip issue.

The most common cause ofhip pain is osteoarthritis of the hip joint. You may have hip arthritis if:

• Pain is in your groin.
• Discomfort comes and goes, becoming more frequent over time.
• Pain worsens with standing, walking and activity, and is relieved by rest.
• You feel stiff.
• You walk with a limp.

Avascular necrosis, or AVN,is a serious condition marked by death of hip bone at the joint. The pain isusually worse and far more constant than in osteoarthritis. People come to mesaying, My hip is killing me, says Dr. Murray.

How Do I Know If I Have Sciatica Or Piriformis Syndrome

Both sciatica and piriformis syndrome cause sciatic nerve pain and have similar symptoms, the causes of the conditions are different.

Piriformis syndrome is caused by anatomic changes in the piriformis muscle. The muscle is located across the femur and outer section of the hips and rotates the hip. The syndrome causes buttock pain or spasms and can irritate and compress the sciatic nerve, leading to sciatic pain. Unlike sciatica, the pain begins in the buttocks, not the lower back.

On the other hand, sciatica is not a syndrome or condition. Its a variety of symptomsnamely, the sharp pain radiating down one leg, weak legs, lower back pain, and a tingling sensation in the legs and feetcaused by other medical conditions and affects the lower spinal nerves.

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Get Sciatica Treatment Today With Aica Orthopedic

In some cases, sciatica pain can go away on its own, with time and proper self-care practices. However, for the best results and to ensure that sciatica is treated correctly, you will want to visit a healthcare professional. AICA Orthopedics has a variety of healthcare specialists that can provide expert care to any individual seeking relief from sciatica. Along with proper self-care practices, our doctors may recommend physical therapy, chiropractic care, surgery, or non-surgical injections depending on the severity of your sciatica.When you work with AICA Orthopedics, youll have access to multiple doctors across different medical fields to help with sciatica symptom relief.

Chiropractic

Chiropractic specialists help to realign the spine and body to its natural state which will improve its ability to heal itself, rather than having to use invasive or medication-based treatment. Treatment for sciatica may involve multiple specialists, but chiropractic is a great place to start for finding relief from sciatica symptoms. With sciatic nerve compression, chiropractic will help to reduce or eliminate that pressure, making chiropractic an effective form of treatment.

Neurology

Neurology specialists are experts at understanding and navigating treatments for the nervous system. Sciatica is a nerve-related condition, making a neurologist a go-to specialist to visit when getting to the root of sciatica symptoms.

Interventional Spine

Orthopedic

Sciatica Treatment At Home

Many cases of sciatica will resolve in a few days. If you experience sciatica symptoms, you can:

• Rest: Decreasing your activity can help minimize additional irritation of the sciatic nerve and give the area time to heal. Bedrest, however, is not recommended. Its best to get up and move around gently. Avoid any movements that lead to increased pain.

• Stretch: Stretching exercises of the low back can help relieve nerve compression. Avoid twisting the back. Aim for slow, gradual stretches.

• Use cold packs: Applying an ice pack to the irritated area can provide some relief. You can ice the area for 20 minutes at a time, a few times per day. Cold therapy is most helpful soon after symptoms begin.

• Apply heat: If your symptoms have persisted for more than two or three days, try heat instead of cold. Use a heating pad or hot packs.

• Take anti-inflammatory medication: Ibuprofen and naproxen are over-the-counter medicines that relieve pain and decrease inflammation.

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