Persistent sciatic nerve, neck, or back pain caused by degenerative or herniated spinal discs can affect the quality of your life. Fortunately, spinal decompression can help promote healing in a nonsurgical way. Read on to learn what happens during the treatment.
What Is Spinal Decompression Treatment?
Spinal decompression is a treatment that relieves back pain by removing pressure from your spine’s neutral elements.
Who Should Consider Spinal Decompression Treatment?
Patients suffering from chronic back pain should consider this treatment. You may be eligible for spinal decompression if your back pain results from spinal compression or pressure. There are various conditions for surgical interventions, for some of which alternative treatments may be ideal.
Consult a spinal specialist to determine the root cause of your pain. They can help you know whether you qualify for a spinal decompression treatment. Spinal decompression treatment exerts a slight pressure on an individual’s abdomen. Hence, it is not ideal for pregnant women or those who want to get pregnant.
Situations that can affect your eligibility include:
- Disk space infection.
- Advanced osteoporosis due to spinal instability.
- Severe nerve damage.
- A history of metastatic cancer.
- Aortic aneurysm spreading to your bone.
- Using screws, metal plates, or other types of hardware.
- Discuss with your specialist any spinal surgery you had in the past to determine whether you can get the procedure.
How It Works
Spinal decompression treatment uses the principle of spinal traction. Chiropractors and osteopaths traditionally use it. It helps provide the ultimate environment to heal slipped, unhealthy, damaged disks. It ensures the pressure in the disk gets lowered to allow nutrients to heal the disks.
Spinal decompression repositions misplaced, bulging, or slipped disk material and disks. It does so by achieving negative pressure.
What Happens During The Procedure?
Spinal decompressions promote the ideal healing environment for various conditions of the spine. It aims to give the patient pain relief.
The procedure depends on three primary components.
They include:
- A computer.
- Harness.
- Spinal decompression table.
You will remain clothed during the spinal decompression procedure. Your specialist will fit a harness around your pelvis. After that, you will lie on the spinal decompression table for the treatment.
The spinal decompression table helps give a stable foundation to allow you to lie as your spine gets gently stretched. The stretching happens through computer technology and harness. Your specialist will control everything on the computer. They will put the harness around your pelvis. Doing so will elongate your spine and decompress the tight intervertebral disks and vertebrae.
Recovery
Spinal decompression is a nonsurgical procedure. As such, it requires little to no period for recovery. Most patients often resume their daily activities immediately after the treatment. Many patients receive treatment multiple times a week.
This means that it requires minimal downtime. You should start noticing improvements after the sessions. The treatment results can vary from one patient to another. Some notice improvements after a few sessions. However, others may need up to six sessions before noticing significant changes.
For more about spinal decompression, visit Stiegler Chiropractic and Rehabilitation at our Zanesville, Ohio, office. Call (740) 454-2729 to schedule an appointment today.