Untreated back pain and related symptoms can be incredibly uncomfortable and disruptive, affecting your ability to perform everyday tasks. It can even affect your work performance, making it crucial to treat, especially when it becomes so painful that you can’t think of anything else but ways to find relief from it. For this reason, many people have turned to spinal decompression therapy, which comes in both surgical and nonsurgical forms.
Also read: Understanding Physiotherapy: 4 Things You Need to Know
This type of treatment is a safe and drug-free way to relieve chronic pain in the neck and back area caused by spinal-related conditions, like disc problems. The treatment involves gently lengthening the spine and releasing it through repetitive motions, creating a pressure change that relieves pain. Here’s what you need to know about spinal decompression therapy:
Nonsurgical Spinal Decompression
This type of spinal decompression uses motorized traction to stretch the spine gently. It then alters the spine’s position and force, taking pressure off the spinal disks, which are cushions in between your spine’s bones. It then creates negative pressure, causing bulging or herniated disks to retract, thereby removing strain on the spine’s nerves. As a result, it encourages the movement of nutrient-rich fluids, oxygen, and water into the disks, allowing them to heal.
Medical professionals have used nonsurgical spinal decompression to treat injured or diseased spinal nerve roots, posterior facet syndrome or worn spinal joints, sciatica, and bulging or herniated disks. This type of therapy is widely offered by physiotherapists in Surrey, making it an accessible option for those struggling with chronic back pain.
The Process of Nonsurgical Spinal Decompression
During spinal decompression, the patient wears a harness around their pelvis and trunk, which goes on top of their clothes. They will then lie prone or supine on a computer-controlled table. The doctor manages the computer by customizing the treatment to fit the patient’s specific needs. Treatment usually lasts between 30 to 45 minutes and requires 20 to 28 treatments over 5 to 7 weeks to enjoy the full effects.
Some patients pursue other treatment types before or after spinal decompression therapy, like ultrasound, electrical stimulation, and heat or cold therapy. However, it’s important to note that nonsurgical spinal decompression is not a good treatment for everyone. Pregnant people, those with tumors and fractures, metal implants in the spine, advanced osteoporosis, and abdominal aortic aneurysm should not seek this treatment.
Surgical Spinal Decompression
Meanwhile, surgical spinal decompression is another method of treating symptoms resulting from pressure on the spinal cord or nerves, like numbness, tingling, weakness, and pain. However, it’s often used as a last resort if other measures don’t work.
There are many spinal decompression surgery types, like diskectomy, which removes a portion of a patient’s spinal disk to relieve pressure on the nerves. Laminotomy or laminectomy involves the surgeon taking out a small piece of bone, like a bony arch, to increase the spinal canal’s size and ultimately relieve pressure. The other types, like foraminotomy, osteophyte removal, and corpectomy, all involve similar procedures in which the surgeon removes something to alleviate pressure. Like any other surgery, it also comes with its own risks, like nerve or tissue damage, bleeding, infection, blood clots, and an allergic reaction to anesthesia.
Conclusion
Spinal decompression therapy has provided relief to many different patients, helping them live life more comfortably and without pain. If you’d like to find out if it’s the right treatment for your situation, be sure to speak with physiotherapists in Vancouver to create a plan geared towards your recovery and healing.
MJ Physio is a physiotherapy clinic in Vancouver, Surrey, and Fleetwood offering spinal decompression therapy, acupuncture therapy, sports injury and rehabilitation, and many other services. Our licensed therapists will provide you with a comfortable experience that will help you achieve your therapy goals. Contact us today to book an appointment!
Post Comments