What Is the Best Sciatica Pain Treatment

Home Treatments

For many people, sciatica is a manageable affliction that gets better after a few days of rest and home remedies such as rest, cold packs and hot packs, stretching, and over-the-counter medicine. If your pain is not severe and it doesn’t prevent you from carrying on with your daily activities, you should start by trying these basic solutions. Even if your pain isn’t debilitating, it is recommended to discuss it with one of our board-certified sciatica specialists to ensure that your pain will not worsen over time.

Physical Therapy

When it comes to sciatica, physical therapy aims to strengthen the muscles in your lower back, core, spine, buttocks, and hip. Stretching muscles that are too tight like the hamstring muscles can also provide pain relief. In addition to that, light aerobic exercises such as swimming and walking will promote the exchange of nutrients and fluids in your body.

Our experts emphasise that while it is important to avoid putting a lot of pressure on your back and avoid heavy lifting when you are suffering from sciatica pain. However, it is very important to avoid sitting in bed all day as this might make your pain worse. The best course of action is to maintain some activity and to avoid prolonged bed rest. To ensure that you’re performing the right exercises, it’s best to get a customized treatment plan from a trained health professional. A physical therapist can prevent you from injuring yourself during workouts.

Medication

In many cases, sciatica pain can be relieved effectively with over-the-counter medications. If the pain persists, our sciatica specialists might recommend prescription medications. The medications that are most commonly used for sciatica are ibuprofen, naproxen, and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, tricyclic antidepressants, anti-convulsant medications, oral steroids such as prednisone, and in extreme cases opioid analgesics.

Steroid Injections

When the pain doesn’t go away with the aforementioned solutions, our sciatica specialists might recommend lumbar therapeutic injections. These injections are extremely effective for treating the pain triggered by conditions that are irritating the sciatic nerve. The main goal of steroid injections is to provide sufficient pain relief to enable to patient to participate in a physical therapy program without discomfort. Injections are also a diagnostic method and our sciatica doctors might use them to pinpoint the affected nerves and to find the source of the pain.

The most commonly-used injections used for treating sciatica pain are:

Epidural Steroid Injections – These injections provide effective pain relief if your suffering from one of the following conditions: degenerative disc disease, herniated discs, spinal stenosis, etc. The aim of epidural steroid injections is to reduce inflammation around the sciatic nerve and to inhibit the production of inflammatory cells, which is a natural response in your body.

Selective Nerve Root Blocks – Often referred to as a nerve block injection, this treatment can also be used to diagnose and alleviate sciatic nerve pain. This treatment consists of injecting an anaesthetic or a combination of anaesthetic and steroids in the bony opening between the adjacent vertebra, where the affected nerve exits the intervertebral foramen. The aim of selective nerve root block is to prevent certain enzymes to cause inflammation and pain, to prevent the pain signals from being transmitted to the brain, and decrease blood flow in the nerve fibres. Depending on your diagnosis, your sciatica doctor might decide to administer one or more such injections to relieve your pain as much as possible.

Alternative Therapies

In some cases, alternative therapies can be a solution for sciatica pain. Acupuncture, chiropractic therapy, and massage therapy are effective for some patients. If you are considering opting for alternative therapies, it is highly recommended to discuss with a board-certified sciatica specialist beforehand. These therapies might not have a negative impact on your overall health, but your sciatica pain might be linked to a more serious condition. It’s always good to know exactly what you are dealing with before making a decision that will impact your health.

Get In Touch

Now that you know what the most effective non-surgical treatment options are when it comes to sciatica pain, it’s time to take action. You can schedule an appointment online by filling out this quick form and checking your insurance coverage or you can send us an e-mail at info@vipmedicalgroup.com and one of our friendly staff members will contact you as soon as possible. Another way to get in touch with our sciatica specialists is by calling (855) 211-8568.  We’re happy to offer information about our Harvard-trained back doctors, the treatments that they offer, and to answer any questions that you might have.

Don’t wait for your pain to worsen, book an appointment with Dr George Hanna, Dr Laura Lombardi, or Dr Shane J. Volney and get a customized non-surgical treatment plan. You can find us in Clifton, NJ, on Route 46 E, past the Ford dealership, in Paramus on Route 17, near the Paramus Park Mall, in West Orange, near the Essex Country Club, and in Woodland Park, on McBride Avenue.