As one of the most common chronic pain problems in the United States, sciatica affects some two in five American adults at some point in their lives. While simple strategies like weight loss, activity modification, and physical therapy are often what it takes to ease or even resolve sciatica, the problem can also persist despite your best efforts — or recur without warning.
At Neuropathy and Pain Centers of Texas, our seasoned team of pain management experts specializes in providing long-term relief from chronic or recurrent sciatica. In some cases, our multifaceted, comprehensive treatment approach may include advanced laser treatment.
Read on to learn how the noninvasive M6 MLS® robotic laser can treat your sciatica to help you put an end to your pain so you can get back to your active life.
Rooted at five points along each side of your lumbar spine (lower back) and sacrum (bottom section of the spine), your sciatic nerve is the longest and thickest nerve in your body. Its two vital branches run through each hip, extend down each leg, and reach into the sole of each foot.
Sciatica occurs when one (or more) of the sciatic nerve roots in your spine become inflamed, irritated, compressed, damaged, or all the above. While it’s often caused by a herniated disc, sciatica can also be a result of degenerative spinal changes like lumbar stenosis, an injury like piriformis syndrome, or osteoarthritis-related damage like a bone spur.
Sciatic nerve root inflammation can begin as general lower back pain, but it tends to progress quickly to its characteristic form — deep, sharp, burning, or constant radiating pain that shoots through one hip and down the back of your leg. For some people, sciatic nerve pain reaches as far as their calf or foot.
When sciatica persists or worsens, it can limit your daily activities, disrupt your sleep, and even become disabling. Left unaddressed, it may cause numbness and tingling along with muscle weakness in the affected hip, leg, and foot that impair your mobility and balance.
If standard sciatica care isn’t providing effective relief, advanced laser treatment can be an ideal next step. Our team uses the highly specialized M6 MLS (multiwave locked system) robotic laser to treat a full scope of chronic pain problems, including sciatica.
FDA-cleared to reduce musculoskeletal inflammation, alleviate pain, and stimulate soft tissue repair and healing, the M6 MLS robotic laser is a groundbreaking, therapeutic class IV laser that’s capable of delivering over 100 times more energy than lasers of the previous generation — or the class III “cold lasers” used for low-level laser therapy (LLLT).
It works on three levels:
Using specific wavelengths of light (red and near-infrared), the laser’s targeted energy converts to biochemical energy in your body, interacting with tissues at the cellular level. It increases metabolic activity within the cells it reaches, improving the transportation of nutrients across the cell membrane and triggering the production of cellular energy (ATP).
At the same time, the laser works on a therapeutic level to promote increased blood flow and improved circulation, pushing blood, oxygen, and nutrients to the damaged area.
This creates an optimal healing environment that fosters accelerated tissue repair and remodeling, improved vascular activity and nerve function, decreased nerve sensitivity, and enhanced lymphatic drainage.
Taken all together, this cascade of beneficial effects works rapidly to ease inflammation, alleviate pain, and accelerate healing. When it comes to attaining real, long-lasting relief for chronic or severe sciatica, you may wonder why you waited so long to try advanced laser treatments.
If you’re done dealing with sciatica, our team can help you attain long-term relief. To find out how you can benefit from advanced laser treatments, call or click online to schedule a visit at your nearest Neuropathy and Pain Centers of Texas office in Fort Worth, Arlington, Waco, or Wichita Falls, Texas, today.
