Nonsurgical Spine Decompression: For Natural Pain Relief

If you have back or neck pain, your treatment options used to be limited and invasive. Doctors would use steroid injections, addictive medications, and risky surgeries as treatment. Today, we have a nonsurgical way to get you pain free. Spine decompression naturally heals bulging discs, degenerating discs, sciatica, and spinal stenosis. Decompression therapy is a gentle, pain free treatment that can allow you to live pain free again.

What is nonsurgical spine decompression?  What can you expect if your doctor recommends this treatment plan?  Will it hurt?  Is it risky?

Let’s go through the steps you can expect in your nonsurgical spinal decompression therapy treatment plan.

Step One:  Evaluation for Nonsurgical Spine Decompression.

Your chiropractor will evaluate your case and perform an exam to be sure decompression therapy is right for you. 

Step Two:  What to Expect for Your First Nonsurgical Spinal Decompression Session.

First, you will remain fully clothed during your session.  We recommend you wear loose fitting and comfortable clothing. We will ask you to remove your belt and empty your pockets. You receive treatment either face up or face down. You can decide what works best for you depending on your level of comfort. Some treatment plans require changing from one position to the other.

You will be asked to lie comfortably on the table, and a special wrap-around harness will be fitted to you.  This harness is what will allow for the gentle traction and stretching of your discs and the spine.  We focus treatment on the problem area of your spine. We can do this with the position of the harness and the angle of the traction. 

The table itself will be programmed to deliver a gentle stretching force to the harness before releasing it in intervals of one minute.   Treatment times can rage from ten to eighteen minutes.

Patients often describe the decompression process as a gentle stretching in their back or hips. Some of our patients have said the treatment is so relaxing that they fall asleep. The feeling of relief from pain is almost immediate.

Nonsurgical spine decompression accomplishes two vital things:

Imbibing the Discs

Imbibing the discs means providing it with vital nutrients.  When the spine is stretched and relaxes, it fosters this “imbibition.”  When a disc is degenerating and damaged, its nutrients are compromised.  Decompression therapy mimics the day-to-day stretching as well as the natural thickening and thinning process of the disc throughout the day.  In a normal and healthy disc, these motions encourage “imbibition.”  In an unhealthy disc, vital nutrients and hydration are limited. This causes the disc to grow even more unhealthy which increases the odds of an injury and pain.  Traction, or artificially stretching the spine, encourages normal imbibition that is comfortable and controlled.  Once the disc begins to be nourished, it will begin to heal and regain healthy function.

Strengthening Structural Support

Nonsurgical spinal decompression realigns a bulging disc by removing pressure from the spine. This can result in a significant reduction in a patient’s pain levels and disability. 

Disc injuries require time to fully heal. Sometimes this takes months. Just because your spine is pain-free, doesn’t mean it is fully healed. We recommend patients follow through on the complete treatment course in its entirety. 

As your spine heals with decompression therapy, your mobility will increase.   This increase in normal activity is the boost your spine needs to really begin to heal and imbibe our discs naturally.  Nourished muscles are the key to good spinal support and healthy discs.

Step 3: Rehabilitation and Structural Support.

By now, your back or neck pain is greatly diminished and its time to move on to rebuilding your strength.  Many patients feel almost normal after only five or less treatments. But again, being pain free doesn’t mean you are healed and that your therapy is finished.

It’s time now to rebuild and strengthen your structural support. We do this through a series of rehabilitation-oriented exercises and therapies.  This is a vital step to your treatment plan to keep the pain away and reverse some of the contributing factors that caused it to begin with.  Rehabilitation will address increasing muscle control and spinal flexibility.

Research has shown that adding an endurance and stabilization exercise program at home will keep the pain under control and reduce your chances of injury.  At home exercise is an effective way to provide long term relief. Your chiropractor will prescribe the perfect low-tech movement plan for you.

In addition to home exercises, you will be instructed on other life choices that will encourage your body to heal itself.  This can include diet and lifestyle changes to help all of your body systems work together in a healthy way.  Following every aspect of your home plan is important to stay pain free.

Step 4:  Muscular Support

At this point, the scar tissues have begun the process of breaking down and the real healing has begun.  Just because your pain is gone and you are essentially healed doesn’t mean you are suddenly on your own, though. Dr. Crist creates a personalized wellness plan for you. This includes occasional office visits to monitor your progress and keep you on the road to recovery.

No matter how long you’ve been dealing with chronic neck or back pain, nonsurgical spinal decompression may be the answer for you. Give us a call for your professional evaluation today.