Recognizing the Early Signs of Sciatica (and When to See a Spine Specialist)

Back pain comes in many different forms, but sciatica stands out as a singular experience that can lead to no small amount of pain.

Unfortunately, this experience isn’t uncommon and up to 40% of the general population will live through at least one sciatica experience.

As with most medical conditions, early intervention can be very helpful in terms of guidance and pain relief. With that in mind, the team here at Apex Pain Specialists, including Dr. Naveen Reddy and Dr. Maziar Massrour, wants to outline a few warning flags for sciatica. We also get into why you can benefit from our expertise.

A brief review of sciatica

Before we dive into the telltale signs of sciatica, it’s helpful to fully understand what we’re up against. Briefly, sciatica is a condition in which something is pressing up against sensitive nerve roots in your lower spine.

In total, there are 31 pairs of nerve roots that exit your spine from your neck to your sacrum. The nerves involved in sciatica are the nerve roots between your L4 and S3 (L stands for lumbar and S stand for sacrum). These nerve roots form the largest nerve in your body, your sciatic nerve, which is what gives sciatica its name.

In most cases, the object compressing the nerve fibers is a piece of one of your discs, which occurs when you develop a herniated disc or bone spurs. Other degenerative changes in your spine can also pinch your sciatic nerve.

The hallmarks of sciatica

The early signs of sciatica can occur quickly and they include:

Low back pain

Pain often develops directly around the site of the nerve compression. This pain can be intermittent, occur only with certain movements, or it can become constant. 

Leg pain

Your sciatic nerve starts in your low back and then it splits into two and travels down each of your legs, all the way to your feet. When the sciatic nerve in your low back is compressed, pain can travel down one of your legs. In fact, many people find the leg pain to be worse than the low back pain.

Like the back pain, this discomfort can range from sporadic (often with certain positions) or constant.

Numbness and tingling

While pain certainly grabs your attention, just as frequently people with sciatica experience numbness and/or tingling in one side of their buttocks and down into the leg.

If sciatica gets worse, it can lead to weakness in one of your legs, but this typically isn’t one of the early signs.

The benefits of getting help for your sciatica

There are several reasons why you should see spine specialists such as ourselves when you develop sciatica.

To start, we can provide you with some great tools to manage the pain. From medications to injections, there's a lot that we can do to make you more comfortable.

And once we relieve the pain, we can review a few ways to manage the condition better at home, such as stretching exercises and icing therapies.

We also offer longer-term solutions for persistent or recurrent sciatica, such as Discseel®, but we can review these options with you at a later time should you need them.

So, if you want to make your sciatica journey more comfortable and shorten its duration, seeing us at the first signs of trouble is a great practice. 

For expert care of your sciatica, please call our office in Chandler, Arizona, at 480-820-7246 today to schedule an appointment. You can also book an appointment online.