Finding a back pain specialist is easy however finding a practitioner or doctor who is a sciatica specialist is almost impossible.
The problem is, most people (even health care practitioners) assume that all sciatica pain is generated from the lower back. Sciatica is a complex condition, the pain can start in one place and move to another region, and then completely move back again. This is the nature of nerve related pain and it takes a sciatica specialist who has seen thousands of chronic sciatica pain cases to pick up on patterns, and to provide effective sciatica pain treatment.
The sciatic nerve branches out from the lower back, derived from spinal nerves L4 to S3 and it contains neural fibres from both the anterior and posterior divisions of the lumbosacral plexus. Most of the focus on the diagnosis and treatment of sciatica pain is in the region of the body, the lumbosacral region. It is for this reason that sciatica pain sufferers are sent to a lower back pain specialist by their doctor or by their physiotherapist.
The sciatic nerve branches out from the lumbosacral plexus, to form the largest/ widest nerve in the human body. The large nerve descends through the pelvis in deep in the buttock past the external rotator muscles of the hip. We find this region to be the source of chronic sciatica pain in the vast majority of cases, not the lower back region.
Postural imbalances lead to the hips becoming internally rotated, which compromises the sciatic nerve as it forms into one thick nerve and descends through the pelvis. If we unwind the underlying cause of chronic sciatica we begin to understand its complexity and why so many practitioners approach it incorrectly:
Weakness to the major hip muscles (gluteus maximus muscles) occurs over a period of time
The anterior muscles (hip flexors and quadriceps muscles) compensate for the weakness of the gluteus maximus, carrying more body weight forward of the midline.
This compensation leads to over dominate anterior muscles and a further weakening of the the posterior muscles (gluteus maximus, hamstrings, adductor muscles)
The deep rotator muscles of the hip (Piriformis, gemellus superior, obturator internus, gemellus inferior, quadratus femoris and the obturator externus) become overloaded compensating for the major hip muscles weakness and shift in body weight forward of the midline.
The hips become internally rotated as the muscles remain tight, jammed and contracted.
The gap between the head of the femur and the lateral border of the sacrum becomes greatly reduced.
The area in which the sciatica nerve branches from the lumbosacral plexus and where it descends through the pelvis is compromised.
This interference (or squashing) of the sciatica nerve results in localised pain deep in the buttock, and radicular pain (referred pain) down the leg and or into the lower back region.
At Back Solutions Clinic we have sciatica specialists who have seen this time and time again and have provided successful treatment of sciatica pain. In many cases, carrying out effective work deep in the buttock and hip regions offers people much welcomed relief after months of treatment to just their lower back.
For more information on how we can help you with your chronic sciatica pain, please call today on 9909 9905.
