Sciatica Pain and How We Can Help

Dr. Dahlager has helped many patients in Noblesville who are suffering from sciatica, and we can help you, too.

If you have sciatica, pain traveling from your low back to the buttocks and down the back of your legs (sometimes all the way into the foot), we will perform some simple orthopedic tests during the physical examination. 

You may be asked to sit, stand, lie on one or both sides of your body, and lie on a chiropractic table on your back for these sciatica tests. Let’s talk about the seated tests for a moment. 

When you are in a seated position, it’s the position that puts the greatest amount of stress on the disk. Thus, if Dr. Dahlager has you in this position, he is looking for confirmation that the disk is a major part of the reason why you have sciatica. This means your pain would be greater temporarily in the seated positions, and you’d have pain also in the standing position; even more than you would have in the side lying or back lying position.

Dr. Dahlager is also looking for your comfort and stability in different positions. For example, disk pressure that is causing sciatica usually results in the greatest amount of comfort and stability in the back lying position, followed by the seated, side lying and standing positions. 

If you are leaning to one side or the other, this is a clue that there is a disk bulge that is causing your sciatica. If the disk is protruding medially, you will often bend toward the side of your leg pain to get relief of the sciatica.

If Dr. Dahlager asks you to flex your hip, this is a check to see if your sciatica is due to a stretch of the sciatic nerve as it passes through the pelvis and around it to the thigh. If you get pain with this test, it’s a good clue that what you have is sciatica. 

There are other tests we might perform – and the good news is that any pain felt during these tests will be alleviated by your chiropractic treatments. Chiropractic is quite effective for sciatica – talk to some of Dr. Dahlager’s patients you meet in the waiting room and get their story, too!

Miller, KJ. Physical assessment of lower extremity radiculopathy and sciatica. Journal of Chiropractic Medicine 2007;6(2):75-82.