What to Expect from Advanced Spinal Decompression

Millions of people all over the world deal with back pain, and it can come from a wide variety of causes. The posture you use when walking, running, or sitting, overuse injury from occupations, sports-related injury, or the wearing down over time due to age-related factors can all affect any pain you suffer in your spine. And regardless of whether it is acute or chronic back pain, you want relief.

Spinal decompression is a way you can enjoy relief from back pain without invasive surgery and can see you getting back to your normal life without lengthy recovery times or strong medications to manage things. 

To fully understand this procedure and its benefits, let’s look at what spinal decompression is, what conditions it helps with, and what the treatment is like.

If you’re experiencing back pain, Drs. Jason Kouri, Aminidhan Thakkar, and the skilled medical team at Neuropathy and Pain Centers of Texas can help you feel better.

Understanding spinal decompression

Spinal decompression therapy is a process that stretches the affected parts of your spine to bring relief to your back or legs, and often it’s done with a traction table. 

The idea of spinal decompression is to induce negative pressure between spinal discs to help retract or reposition your spinal column. It also creates pressure in the lower spinal discs to help provide an influx of nutrients to help damaged discs in healing.

The conditions it helps with

This treatment is ideal for a variety of conditions, including:

• Bulging discs
• Herniated discs
• Degenerative discs
• Degenerative disc disease
• Spinal stenosis
• Pinched nerves
• Damage to your sciatic nerve (sciatica)

For disc problems, the treatment can effectively reinsert the bulging or herniated material into the discs, which can help with any associated symptoms. And repositioning your spine can help to alleviate the pain associated with the other conditions.

What to expect from the procedure

We use mechanical traction with a table designed to safely and gently pull the spine and put it back in place. 

To start the treatment, you are placed into a harness around your hips which is attached to the lower part of the table by your feet. You are positioned either face up or face down. Next, the lower table slides back and forth to provide the stretch. You shouldn’t feel any pain — only the movement of the table and the slight stretching of your spine. 

Fifteen one-minute periods of decompression with relaxation in between is normal, and overall the process usually takes about half an hour. 

This is a safe, nonsurgical solution for back pain that can have you back in action without recovery time or medications. If you’re ready to see what spinal decompression can do for you, make an appointment at one of our four convenient Texas locations — Fort Worth, Arlington, Waco, and Wichita Falls — today.