What is sciatica?

Sciatica is a pain in your leg due to pressure on the nerves that run down your leg from your back. This pressure can be due to a damaged disc in your back. It was once thought that a disc slipped out of place. However, nowadays, a “slipped” disc is thought of more like a bulge in the wall of a tyre. Most healthcare professionals now call “slipped” discs herniated disc as the inner portion of the disc bulges out and causes conditions like sciatica.

Can osteopathy treat sciatica?

This is a common question because there is a well-known myth that osteopathy can’t treat sciatica with manipulations. With traditional osteopathy, the treatments for sciatica are somewhat limited to another cause of sciatica pain known as referred pain. This is where a ligament in the back, for example, is causing the pressure on the sciatic nerve, not a herniated disc. If this is the case, any osteopath can treat your sciatica. However, here at The Mayfair Clinic, we moved past traditional manipulations, and so we can provide treatment for all kinds sciatica – without limitations.

Finding the cause of sciatica

Even though we can treat any cause of sciatica here at The Mayfair Clinic, diagnosis is still crucial. We need to know exactly where the pain is starting from to pinpoint the cause and then treat it. Finding a cause of sciatica isn’t easy. You see, just because you feel pain in your lower leg, for example, the condition causing it may be in your hip or lower back. Then, of course, once we have found the area, we must find the cause. This could be a ligament, a muscle, a herniated disc or something else. Each of these different problems need a slightly different treatment approach!

Osteopathic consultation for Sciatica

All of our consultations begin with a case history, to understand the history of the problem and what structures may be routinely under abnormal pressure or strain. This consultation is where we find out the exact cause of the sciatica. You may have been told you have sciatica before this consultation, but where and why the pain started may still be a mystery. We are here to break down this mystery and get you back to normal.

Physical examination & testing

Looking at your back & how it responds to certain stresses and strains is the next step. During the physical examination we will look at your back, hips and legs in general and then narrow down the search with specific tests to understand the root cause of the problem. We’ll also ask you some questions about your daily life, how it’s been affected and when the pain is worst. The aim of these questions is to further narrow down our quest for the cause of your sciatica. As well as this, for many patients, an important part of their recovery is understanding what has stopped their sciatica making the recovery it should have.

Necessary imaging

Once we can deduce where the pain is originating from and which structures are injured, upright imaging can provide us with additional insight into why the sciatica is not recovering. More importantly it will give us the information needed to form a uniquely tailored treatment and rehabilitation approach so that you can help the healing process continue outside the clinic at home.

Osteopathic treatments for sciatica

Traditional osteopathic treatments for sciatica are the hands-on manipulations known as “clicks and pops”. We’re sure you are familiar with these, they are where an osteopath will click your back in a controlled manner to “realign” the bones in your back and relieve pain. In reality there is no actual realigning taking place, a more accurate description would be “release” of the pressure in the joint. They also work on the ligaments in your back, meaning that traditional osteopaths can treat referred pain sciatica. However, due to the nature of these clicks and pops, they cannot treat herniated disc sciatica as effectively. This is partly due to the way in which they are done, the twisting necessary to achieve the “pop or click” is not good for an already damaged disc!

The Mayfair Clinic’s treatments for sciatica

Like we said above, here at The Mayfair Clinic, we don’t use the traditional osteopathic techniques for sciatica. In fact, we don’t use them for any of the conditions that we treat here. Instead, we use the latest technology and techniques to ensure that we can provide our patients with a controllable and repeatable treatment for all manner of conditions. It is our use of the latest osteopathic technology that makes us the best place to come in the UK for treatments of conditions like sciatica. The techniques and technology that we use to treat sciatica include:

IDD Therapy | Spinal Decompression

Decompression or “Idd therapy” has fewer side effects than drugs and quicker results than almost any other treatment for sciatica. It is safe, fast and has a success rate of 90% according to the research. It has saved many people from risky surgeries and works wonders on conditions like sciatica where there is pressure put on the nerve in the back.

Laser Therapy

Laser therapy is a treatment perfect for sciatica of any kind. This treatment uses a pulsating laser to increase blood flow to a designated area. This is usually the area of the underlying cause of your sciatica – where the injury is. This increased blood flow means that the oxygen and nutrients can begin to heal whatever damage is causing the pain. The laser therapy speeds up the bodies natural healing process to ensure a speedy recovery. More importantly it can be done in any position and requires NO painful movements!

Spinal Adjustment Therapy | iQ Impulse

Spinal impulse adjustment can be used to free a stiff joint in the back. This is perfect for sciatica if it stems from a slipped disc. This treatment is a controllable and repeatable one that adjusts any bones in the back that are out of line or targets a specific disc in your back to readjust and correct it. Once more, this does not involve any twisting. The tool itself measures the changes in mobility of the joint being treated and will automatically stop when improvement has been achieved. In essence, it is a safer & more effective version of the traditional clicks and pops used by other osteopaths.

Vibration Therapy

Vibration therapy is a fantastic addition to treatment of sciatica. Frequently muscle spasm caused by impingement of the sciatic nerve can make the problem worse. This muscle spasm limits normal movement & creates further pain. My safely working on the muscles using vibration we are able to relieve the muscle spasm and help the muscles function more effectively. Once more, patients love the vibration and finding it very pleasant during treatment.

In most sciatica treatments, we will use a combination of all the treatments mentioned above. This allows us to ensure a speedy recovery while making sure the underlying cause is gone for good. By offering this service, we can provide our patients with quick relief from the pain stemming from the pressure on the sciatic nerve and long-term healing from the underlying cause.

When your sciatica and the pain from it has gone, we won’t just abandon you. We always offer our patients a follow-up appointment to discuss any lingering issues and what they can do to prevent their condition from returning. This may mean that you need to implement a few small life adjustments, but with our help, you can make sure sciatica never returns.

Contact Us.

Email Us

info@themayfairclinic.com

Call Us

0203 947 32 22

Clinic Address

4 Cavendish Square, London, W1g 0PG.