Tarlov Cyst: Could Cysts Be Causing Your Sciatica? | The Healthy

When having back pain, it could be a number of reasons. Oftentimes it is sciatica pain, but sometimes there is a misdiagnosis. The first thing to do when experiencing back pain is to seek the proper diagnosis from a sciatica specialist in Scottsdale.

What is Sciatica Pain?

First, let’s explore what sciatica pain is. This describes the pain that travels along the sciatic nerve, running from the lower spine through the buttock and down the back of the leg.

Symptoms include numbness, tingling, and burning along the nerve and constant pain. Some patients describe it as an electric-like sensation. Other terms known as sciatica pain include lumbar radicular and lumbar radiculopathy.

This pain is usually caused when a sciatic nerve is irritated or pinched. However, this term is often misused. You need to find the underlying cause of the pain for the right diagnosis and proper treatment.

Lower Back Problems

Sciatica pain is usually brought on from lower back issues. So, if you can treat back pain as soon as you experience it, you can prevent it from getting worse, leading to sciatica. Things like a lumbar herniated disc, lumbar spinal stenosis, osteoarthritis, and lumbar degenerative disc disease will lead to sciatica.

Conditions Similar to Sciatica

Joint problems along the spine are similar to sciatica pain. This is when the spinal joints down the back and the leg are painful. Typically caused by arthritis, it does require a different treatment plan than sciatica.

Sacroiliac joint dysfunction is when either too much or too little motion in the joints occurs. The pain will radiate down the leg, just like sciatica pain. However, it is not the same and oftentimes non-surgical treatment is needed to restore normal motion in the joints.

Piriformis syndrome is also just like sciatica pain. This is when the piriformis muscle in the buttocks irritates the sciatic nerve causing pain to radiate along the nerve and leg. This is not technically sciatica, even though it does involve the nerve. Physical therapy and anti-inflammatory medications are usually needed for treatment.

Finding Treatment

You should never self-diagnose! There are so many components that come into play that your lower back pain could be a range of things and now just sciatica pain, so always seek the advice of a spine specialist. The LaserTech Pain and Back Relief Center is based in Arizona and offers laser therapy. This is a much more effective and much more comfortable treatment option for a variety of lower back pain compared to traditional surgery. During and after treatments, you will experience virtually no pain, and there have been no known side effects. Even though several treatment sessions will be needed over several weeks, it is actually less of a hassle than regular surgery and the recovery that comes with it.