What Would I Do At Physical Therapy With Sciatica?

If you’re living with sciatica pain, you know how it can affect every aspect of your life. How it makes you hyper-aware of how you’re sitting, what you have planned for your day, and when the last time you took a pain reliever was. Introducing appointments, evaluations, and potentially at-home treatment into your routine probably sounds like an impossibility, if not a nightmare.

But living in pain can be its own nightmare, even if you’re used to it. Finding relief, being able to move like you used to, and building your stamina back up to normal might sound worth the extra step of asking for help from a physical therapist.

At SSOR Physical Therapy, we don’t want the physical therapy process to be a mystery that catches patients off guard once they make an appointment, so here’s what you can expect from your first physical therapy appointment with sciatica, and how our sciatica pain treatment plans might go.

Your first sciatica pain treatment appointment

Your first appointment will be in-person whenever possible. This is because an in-person evaluation is extremely valuable to a physical therapist to design a treatment plan around your experience of sciatica pain, your goals for treatment, and your overall health condition. However, we also offer virtual physical therapy appointments for those who need it.

At SSOR, we encourage new patients to fill out our required paperwork ahead of time to avoid having to do it in the waiting room. We’ll then spend as much time as we can beginning treatment that same day, sending you home with detailed information about the next steps, including the appointment schedule you decide on.

Causes of sciatica inform treatment techniques

The in-person evaluation allows our sciatica specialists to see your condition first-hand and ask you follow-up questions to get the most accurate diagnosis. Sciatica pain has several different causes that could dramatically affect the recommended treatment plan. Some pain is due to inactivity of muscles or joints and other pain can be caused by over-using those joints. Causes of sciatica your physical therapist will consider include:

• Bone spurs
• Bulging or herniated discs
• Piriformis syndrome
• Over-use or improper use of the spine from carrying heavy loads
• Sedentary lifestyle and/or poor posture

Any or multiple of these factors in addition to other medical conditions should be treated slightly differently than people whose pain is caused by other factors. Self-diagnosis can be helpful in learning what activities to avoid or how to better manage pain, but for finding lasting relief, professional guidance is much more beneficial.

Ongoing sciatica treatment plans

Although your current method of treating sciatica pain might include avoiding certain muscle movements or reducing movement entirely, rest can be counterproductive for treating sciatica. Stretching and exercise are key methods used in sciatica physical therapy, but there are also more “passive” treatments for some patients.

At our facilities in Overland Park, Prairie Village, Shawnee, and Westwood, we can support sciatica treatments with the following techniques:

• Manual physical therapy
• Isometric exercises
• Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS)
• Joint manipulation
• Gait training
• Massage therapy

During most of your physical therapy appointments, you’ll learn the proper technique for exercises, stretches, movements, and postures to avoid pain points and strengthen the muscles that will help alleviate your pain. At home, you’ll continue building these muscles and participating in at-home healing and rehabilitation methods, including:

• Heat and cold therapy
• Posture adjustments
• Lifestyle changes to increase daily movement
• Stretching exercises

How long sciatica treatment will take varies highly on a number of factors, including your overall health condition, the severity of your symptoms, your progression through strength training, and your personal goals.

Getting the most out of sciatica treatments

Whatever your treatment plan might look like, our goal is to help people get back to their normal lives without the hassle of sciatica pain. We also want to provide you with a sustainable prevention plan to protect your spine and sciatica nerve health for the long run.

Making the most of physical therapy, whether for sciatica, after surgery, or for performance enhancement, starts with committing to the plan through the toughest times. There will be days where you feel discouraged, and relief won’t come overnight. However, these evidence-based treatments can be highly effective and satisfying, especially when patients maintain their positivity and continue getting stronger every day.

Start healing from sciatica pain today

We hope you see the hope in your condition—that your sciatica isn’t something you need to just deal with forever. Even if you’re not ready to request an appointment right now, we’d like to talk to you about what you’re going through and how we might make it easier for you to get the relief you deserve. Call one of our offices today to learn more about our sciatica treatment plans.