What Are My Treatment Options for Sciatica?

Hawaii Pain & Spine Blog What Are My Treatment Options for Sciatica?

Roughly 40% of the American population will deal with the same painful experience: sciatica. 

This condition develops when something presses on your sciatic nerve, which runs from your lower back down each leg. If you’ve had radiating pain, weakness, or numbness in your lower back and one of your legs, it could be sciatica. 

With expertise in a broad range of sciatica treatments, Dr. Jonathan Carlson is here to help. Visit him at our Hawai’i Pain and Spine office on the Windward side of O’ahu in Kailua. He can evaluate your symptoms and create a personalized plan for you. 

Generally, that means moving through the following treatment phases until you find relief. 

Finding the root of the problem

Dr. Carlson can best address your sciatica when he knows what’s going on in your body. He might use X-rays or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), for example. This allows him to identify what’s putting pressure on your sciatic nerve and where that pressure is being applied.

This, in turn, makes it easier to tailor targeted treatment for you. 

Starting with conservative treatment options

There’s no reason to do more than your body needs. That’s why Dr. Carlson always starts with conservative treatment options first.

Some people, for example, get relief if they largely take it easy for a few weeks while integrating specific gentle stretching and exercises. To support your healing, Dr. Carlson might also recommend:

He customizes all of this to your sciatic pain and what’s causing it. 

Ramping up sciatica treatment

If these conservative treatment options don’t soothe your pain, Dr. Carlson deploys minimally invasive options. He might recommend an epidural corticosteroid injection to target any inflammation that’s putting pressure on your sciatic nerve, for example. Or he may recommend regenerative medicine to help heal any damaged tissue that’s causing your pain. 

Some minimally invasive sciatica treatments take about six weeks to work. Dr. Carlson works with you to monitor your symptoms and see what’s working — or if you need more involved treatment. 

Considering surgical intervention

If you’re still experiencing sciatica after three months of exploring other treatment options, Dr. Carlson may recommend surgery. 

The procedure gets tailored to the root cause of your sciatic pain. If a herniated disc is pressing on the nerve, for example, Dr. Calrson can perform a laminotomy with discectomy to remove the disc. 

All told, you have a lot of options for easing your sciatica that we can explore together. To get started, call our office today.

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