What is the root cause of my sciatic nerve pain?

On the surface, it seems like the cause of sciatic nerve pain is fairly simple. What is causing your sciatica nerve pain is an inflammation or irritation of the sciatic nerve. However, there can be underlying issues that trigger this inflammation and pain.

When you have sciatic nerve pain, you have a condition called sciatica. This issue is a common source of lower back, buttock and leg pain. Medical researchers report that sciatica affects up to 40% of people at some time in their lives. A physical therapist can help you determine what the root cause of your sciatic nerve pain is, and they can also offer high-quality treatment for sciatica.

Common root causes of sciatica

Figuring out what is causing your sciatica nerve pain is easier for physical therapists; these specialists are trained to treat the human musculoskeletal system, which includes the sciatic nerves and other lower back structures. A few of the underlying issues that could be causing your sciatica are: 

• Lumbar herniated discs
• Spinal stenosis
• Poor posture
• Spinal osteoarthritis
• Bone spurs

How can your physical therapist help treat your sciatica?

After revealing what the underlying cause of your sciatica nerve pain is, your physical therapist can work to help treat your pain. In fact, they can build you a therapy plan that’s unique to your symptoms and needs. Some therapy methods that your custom plan may include are: 

• Therapeutic exercises intended to stretch and strengthen the lower back, buttock and core muscles. 

• Dry needling designed to break up knots of tension in your lower back soft tissue. 

• Manual therapy that can help realign the lower spine and take pressure off the pinched sciatic nerve. 

• Ergonomic training that focuses on improving your posture and reducing your risk of future lower back issues. 

Back in Motion PT is ready to help treat your sciatica

Ready to deal with the underlying issue that is causing your sciatic nerve pain? Our Back in Motion Physical Therapy team is primed to help you address your pain and its root cause. We can perform a free screening on you designed to reveal the underlying cause of your sciatica. Then, our physical therapists will create an individualized therapy plan for you that’s intended to offer benefits like: 

• Reducing pain.
• Improving lower back flexibility. 
• Increasing spinal support. 
• Decreasing your risk of future back problems. 

Not able to come into one of our conveniently located clinics? No worries! Our therapy team offers virtual therapy and at-home care services that allow you to receive therapy from home. 

Contact us today for more information about our back pain treatment services or to schedule an initial appointment.