Addressing Sciatic Pain: Start Early for Best Results

As with most musculoskeletal pain, sooner is better! Many people try to ride out sciatic pain by taking pain medication and resting, which can actually be counterproductive and further worsen the underlying cause of their sciatica. An early assessment can help you understand your symptoms, identify concerning changes, and develop a plan for managing pain and maintaining mobility.

You should also pay attention to changes in the severity of your pain or shifting sensations in your back and leg. Because sciatica is caused by pressure or irritation of the nerve roots, these changing symptoms can indicate something is happening to the nerve.

What are some of the specific symptoms of sciatica you should watch out for?

One symptom you absolutely shouldn’t ignore is sciatic pain occurring alongside new difficulty urinating, loss of bladder or bowel control, numbness around the groin or inner thighs, or severe or rapidly worsening leg weakness. These symptoms can indicate a serious condition called cauda equina syndrome, which requires urgent medical assessment — but our team will be here waiting to help you with rehabilitation.

Fortunately, such incidents are rare. In most cases, active treatment with a physiotherapist is enough to resolve sciatic pain.

One of the reasons conservative care, like physiotherapy, is so effective for sciatic pain is that it focuses on resolving the underlying cause. When you come in for your appointment, our clinicians will perform a comprehensive evaluation to help us determine what might be irritating, pinching, or compressing your sciatic nerve.

We’ll ask you to share details about your symptoms, such as when they started and the exact sensations you’re experiencing (i.e., dull pain, shooting pain, numbness). We’ll also perform several tests that give us a complete picture of your situation. We might check the following:

Once we understand what’s causing your sciatic pain, we’ll develop a customized treatment plan to address that cause. In many cases, the culprit is a lumbar herniated disc, which is one of the most common causes of sciatica.

Nestled between each vertebra in your spine is a vertebral disc, a soft cushion of cartilage that protects the vertebrae from rubbing against each other. If the material in one of those discs extends beyond its usual boundaries — either because of a sudden injury or age-related degeneration — it can bulge or rupture, irritating the nearby sciatic nerve.

By addressing your herniated disc, you can resolve your sciatica. For most people, that means a targeted, progressive therapeutic exercise program paired with pain management techniques such as massage therapy, chiropractic adjustments, or even acupuncture.