www.healthpointclinic.com
You go
to your family doctor with low back and leg pain and ask about seeing a
chiropractor. "Oh, no," says the doctor," they'll try to pop it
back into place which will not only be painful, but make matters much
worse." Is this true? What is the chiropractic approach to treating a
"slipped disc"?
Chiropractic
is conservative care, which means it is non-surgical and drugless. In treating
low back "slipped discs", most spine experts agree that conservative
care should be tried before surgery is considered, except in severe cases.
Chiropractic
care has a long history of successfully providing conservative care for disc
conditions - and no, chiropractors don't try to "pop a disc back in
place".
What
is a "slipped" disc?
The disc is a circle of cartilage between each vertebra in the spine that acts
as both a shock absorber and a shock distributor. If you jump up and down,
imagine what would happen to the stack of bony vertebra that make up the spine
without the cushioning of the discs. Move your back side to side. Again, you
can visualize the give and take of the discs between the vertebrae. Without
discs, the spine simply could not function.
Discs
don't really "slip". Instead, they bulge, herniate, or rupture.
Saying a disc has "slipped" does suggest that something has
"slipped out" and is not where it's supposed to be, which is what
happens in disc injuries.
Discs
are made up of concentric circles or rings of fibrous material with a tough
gelatinous center. When cracks or fissures occur in the fibrous rings, the
gelatinous material in the center can begin to push out. A number of different
factors may cause the disc to "slip".
How do
chiropractors diagnose what went wrong?
What has happened to our poor accountant who now is experiencing acute back and
leg pain? Apparently the cracks and fissures in his disc, the dehydration, the
poor mechanics, the lifting - and perhaps even the sneeze - has caused the disc
to slip just enough to press against the nerve that exits next to the disc.
This has caused inflammation of the nerve, which can then cause pain along the
path of the nerve into the leg.
How
does the chiropractor determine whether this is a "slipped disc"?
Careful history taking, vital signs, and orthopedic and neurological testing
are standards of practice in chiropractic offices. Are the reflexes intact? Is
there loss of muscle strength or signs of muscle wasting? Is there loss of
sensation along an area supplied by a particular nerve? These are vital
questions that the orthopaedic and neurological exam can help answer.
Chiropractors
utilize other diagnostic procedures that are unique to chiropractic and
establish the foundation for a program of care. Chiropractors look carefully at
posture and perform a postural analysis of the patient. They use techniques
such as motion and static palpation to determine exact areas of restrictions in
spinal joint motion. They palpate muscles and perform muscle testing, as well
as perform tests for pelvic balance and determine whether there is a
"short leg".
X-rays
of the low back are taken, or the chiropractor might send the patient to an
x-ray facility for these films. Depending on the findings, the chiropractor may
call for an MRI or other imaging study of the back.
HeathPoint Chiropractic
12381 Route 30
Irwin, PA 15642
www.healthpointclinic.com
Phone: 724-864-6560