Man holding neck and lower back due to pain.

Disc Pain and Issues in Greensburg

Greensburg Chiropractor, Dr. Gareth Bury provides relief to patients suffering from disc issues by providing safe, non-invasive Chiropractic care in Greensburg, PA. As a Chiropractor, Dr. Bury specializes in the structure of the spine and its protective relationship to the nervous system.  At Optimus Spine & Posture, Dr. Bury uses x-ray analysis of the spine to dictate the specific adjustments involved in correcting misalignments and restoring its proper structural position.

What Are Spinal Discs?

Spinal discs are the shock-absorbing cushions between each vertebra. Discs have a strong outer ring and a soft, jelly-like center.  The discs connect each vertebra together and allow you to move, bend and provide flexibility for your spine.  Throughout your entire life, these discs are constantly exposed to compression, torque, twisting and injury, resulting in stress to the disc mechanism.

How Does an Injury to the Discs Occur?

Disc injury occurs as a result of different factors such as:

  • Weakening of the outer tough covering of the disc from repeated injuries over time
  • Sudden rupture from too much pressure all at once such as a fall

Facts About Herniated Discs

Disc herniations are most common in young and middle-aged adults.  A herniated disc causes pressure on the nerves.  The disc herniation also causes a chemical irritation of the nerve roots.  The direct pressure and the chemical irritation and inflammation can lead to pain, weakness and/or numbness in the area supplied by the involved nerves such as sciatic pain.

Back Surgery – Will It be Necessary?

Only a small percentage of disc herniations actually require surgery.  Too many individuals are misdiagnosed as having a “herniated disc”.  These cases are often improperly and aggressively managed resulting in unnecessary and costly surgery.  Surgical consultation may be required if a neurological deficit in ability to walk or properly balance happens.  After careful evaluation of your problem, your doctor of chiropractic may advise you to consider a short-term trial of conservative chiropractic care.  If satisfactory results are not achieved, then you and your doctor will decide on a recommendation for a second opinion consultation prior to determining the need for surgery.

What To Do For Disc Problems?

Many disc herniations can be successfully treated and the resulting pain and muscle spasms effectively alleviated through the application of conservative chiropractic care.  Dr. Bury directs his efforts toward the skillful restoration of the vertebrae to their normal range of motion, thereby reducing inflammation, stress and pressure on the spinal discs and joints.

How Long Will A Disc Problem Take To Respond?

The length of time you have the condition greatly affects your response time.  For example, if you have only been treated with physical therapy, muscle relaxants or pain medication, and your condition was the result of a spinal derangement, you will have allowed the condition to possibly become chronic, while you attempted to treat only the pain.  Removal of the pain is not necessarily always beneficial; it is the body’s warning signal to alert you to problems.  The chiropractic approach to the management of disc herniation involves a strict regimen of ice or heat when necessary, supportive therapy, special rehabilitative exercises and specific adjustments.  Specific chiropractic adjustments may improve spinal mobility and unlock the facet joints (gliding joints of the spine which allow movement) helping to relieve the accompanying muscle, ligament and tendon contractions as well as the mechanical or reflex irritation of the nerve roots.  Some disc cases respond to treatment in a week or two.  In any case, it requires time to heal, even after the pain has been relieved.

Symptoms of Disc Issues

  • Deep, dull ache in low back
  • Deep, dull ache in buttocks, posterior thigh, or foot
  • Splinting muscle spasms of the low back, causing the individual to be bent over to one side due to pain and spasm
  • Sharp pain in low back upon movement
  • Pain, loss of sensation, numbness and/or tingling in leg/foot
  • Muscle weakness
  • Inability to stand on toes or heels
  • Pain accentuated by forward bending, sneezing or straining
  • Limited flexion and/or extension of back
  • Increased pain with prolonged sitting, standing or lying on stomach
  • Pain relieved when lying on back or side with knees and hips flexed
  • Difficult to rise from sitting or lying position
  • Decrease or loss of knee or ankle reflexes
  • Muscle atrophy

Chiropractic Care for Disc Issues in Greensburg

Dr. Bury of Optimus Spine & Posture provides chiropractic adjustments, nutritional counseling and lifestyle analysis to care for patients suffering from disc issues in Greensburg and surrounding areas.

To learn more about Chiropractic care for disc issues in Greensburg: