Bulging discs
Slipped Disc Tamworth or Slipped Disc Lichfield?
Bulging Discs, Slipped Disc, Prolapsed Disc and Herniated Disc are all terms used to describe degenerative disc disease in the human spine. This condition may vary from mild to severe and in some severe cases require surgery.
Accurate diagnosis is essential for recovery and treatment options will vary depending on who you visit for help.
Atlas Pain Relief Centre have a Back Pain and Pain Relief Clinic in Tamworth town centre and employ experienced Tamworth Osteopaths and Tamworth Physiotherapists. All the practitioners are experienced in arthritis, degenerative disc conditions and nerve root irritation such as sciatica. Atlas Acupuncture can also help relieve your symptoms and provide pain relief.
Treating patients from Lichfield, Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, Swadlincote, Brownhills, Measham, Kingsbury, Polesworth, Dordon, Atherstone, the Tamworth Back Pain Relief Centre at Atlas is the place to visit if you have problems with back pain or disc bulges.
Some patients who seek help with back pain and sciatica are told they have a slipped disc. The practitioner may suggest that by cracking your back that they have put the disc back in place for you. This is in fact not the case as the discs do not actually slip at all, they are stitched into place and cannot slip out.
Your vision may be of a pile of coins stacked on top of one another and one slips out to the side and is gratefully realigned for you by someone pushing the coin into place, this is not the case. More accurate would be the vision of a jam doughnut that had been squeezed and the jam had leaked out. It would be a fancy trick to be able to push the jam back into the doughnut so I suggest that the explanation used of just popping your disc back after it slips out is far too simplistic if not totally misleading.
Xrays will only show bones and are not suitable for diagnosing disc injuries. As discs are classified as soft tissue, a more accurate diagnostic tool is the MRI scan. Xrays are not good for you and should only be considered if a fracture, bone disease or pathology is suspected.
Xrays can be obtained from your GP free of charge should you suspect there may be a need for investigation. Xrays are sometimes used to diagnose a spinal scoliosis of the spine and convince the patient they have a spinal problem. A scoliosis of the spine is a lateral deviation of the spine which is a sideways curvature. If the curvature is anything of note it can be seen with the naked eye and will not need an xray. Many people have a scoliosis and unless this is very severe, it will not affect your life in any significant way. It is unlikely that cracking your back will rid you of an unwanted scoliosis and you may find more help from a simple heel lift worn in your shoe which would level your pelvis if you have a leg length difference.