Millions of Americans suffer from back pain, including persistent, chronic pain that affects their everyday lives. Pain can happen for different reasons, but one of the most common causes is pressure or compression on spinal nerves.
At Easy Reach Chiropractic in Lake Worth and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Barbara Adonis, DC, and Heather Previll, PT, DPT, use nonsurgical spinal decompression therapy to help relieve nerve compression and the painful symptoms it causes. If spinal decompression is in your future, here’s what to expect during treatment.
Your spine is a series of bones (vertebrae) that line up to create a channel or column. That column contains nerves that travel from your brain to the rest of your body. Nerves exit your spine at joints between each pair of spine bones. These joints are called facet joints.
Sometimes, nerves are compressed or irritated where they exit your spine. Different problems of condition can lead to nerve irritation or compression, including:
Each of these issues can cause chronic back pain (or neck pain), along with pain, numbness, and weakness that radiates into your legs or arms.
Spinal decompression therapy uses gentle stretching or traction to relieve nerve compression and help realign your vertebrae and discs. Therapy is performed right in our office, and it’s completely noninvasive.
Spinal decompression therapy uses a special medical table that’s divided into an upper section and a lower section. You begin therapy by lying comfortably on the table, where you’re secured with a special harness that helps your spine maintain an optimal position during therapy.
Next, we slowly adjust the table to apply gentle pressure on your spine. This pressure realigns your spine and helps take the pressure off affected nerves. Stretching also creates negative pressure inside your spine, improving blood flow for better healing and a reduction in inflammation and irritation.
Each session takes about 30-45 minutes. Therapy is painless, and it can be repeated as needed to maintain pain relief.
Depending on your specific needs, we may combine decompression therapy with another therapy called Soleve®, designed to deliver tiny bursts of electricity to focal areas of pain. Like decompression therapy, Soleve also stimulates natural healing while providing you with pain relief without surgery or medication.
Spinal decompression therapy is safe, noninvasive, and painless — and for many people, it offers effective relief from painful symptoms. To learn if spinal decompression therapy is right for you, request an appointment online or over the phone with the team at Easy Reach Chiropractic today.
