Back Pain

Back Pain

Back pain is one of the most common complaints we see as chiropractors here at Capital Chiropractic Centre. It is estimated 70%-90% of all Australians will experience an episode of back pain at some stage in their life. For anyone who has suffered with this condition, you are aware of how debilitating it can be. This is why it is the number one cause of years lived with a disability. Back pain can significantly impact your daily life, hampering many everyday activities.

Due to the varying nature of back pain, there are many potential differential diagnoses including: sciatica (numbness, tingling, and shooting pain), facet syndrome, muscle sprains, joint sprains, disc bulges and many more. It is important that we correctly identify what type of back pain you are suffering with in order to have success with treatment.

How does this pain feel? 

Often patients will describe pain with even the slightest movements, a shooting or stabbing pain down the back of the leg (sciatica), a dull ache, numbness around the area or stiffness with locked movements.

Common Causes:

• Poor posture/spinal alignment

• Inactivity

• Prolonged Sitting

• Trauma

• Repetitive Poor movement

• Poor Lifting technique

• Sports Injuries

• Underlying disease or pathology (rare)

• Pregnancy​

What is the most common cause of back pain?

Once we have ruled out any underlying disease or problem, the most common cause of back pain is mechanical in nature. Meaning the joints of the spine are not moving as freely as they are designed to. This causes pain and restriction locally, can contribute to spinal degeneration, muscle spasms, building discs, and irritation of the nerves surrounding the back.

Inflammation and swelling around the lower back can often irritate the sciatic nerve, resulting in a shooting pain down the back of the leg.

How can chiropractic help back pain? 

At Capital Chiropractic Centre we take a holistic approach with back pain, we treat your entire body, not just where it hurts. There can be many factors into what is causing your back pain, so it is essential we provide an accurate diagnosis.

Our process involved a complimentary consultation which allows us to determine if we are in fact the right people to help you. If we are not, we will be sure to refer you to the right people. If we deem that we can help you, you will move on to a paid examination.

During this examination process, we will perform a range of orthopaedic, neurological, and musculoskeletal tests in order to find out what the problem is. Once we have all of this information, we will report back to you with our findings.

From here we will create a personalised treatment plan, designed to help you recover naturally. Our treatment approach will include spinal adjustments, adjustments to the joints of the body particularly the lower limb, muscle work, plus the prescription of rehab exercises and stretches.

With back pain, we will also look at the lifestyle factors that have led to the injury and help you make modifications as necessary to prevent future instances.

Our chiropractors utilise a variety of different chiropractic techniques, from hands on manual style adjusting (Diversified and Gonstead), to gentle low-force techniques. Depending on your needs and your body type, we will cater a treatment style to suit your body.