About that Lower Back Pain of Yours

• Posted on: Aug 15 2019
• By: DFW Spine Center

Pretty much everyone has lower back pain at some time in his or her life. Statistics place that number at over 80 percent of the population will eventually have lower back pain. The lower back is made up of the lumbar spine, vertebrae L1 through L5. This is the area of the back that supports the largest loads, making it a natural place for back injury.

In this blog, let’s get into a little more detail about your lower back pain. After all, we see patients experiencing this type of back pain every day at all of our DFW Center for Spinal Disorders locations.

Are there different types of back pain?

It may seem like a pointless exercise to categorize the types of pain, but it is useful for both diagnosis and possible treatment moving forward. You could categorize your lower back pain by its onset an duration:

• Acute pain— This back pain comes on suddenly, for instance when you lift a box without using your legs. This type of pain gradually subsides as the body heals itself over the course of a few days or weeks.
• Subacute pain— This type of pain is still usually due to some muscle strain or joint pain, but it is prolonged, lasting from six weeks to three months.
• Chronic pain— This is lower back pain that lasts over three months. This type of pain is usually severe, doesn’t respond to initial treatments, and needs medical intervention to locate the exact source and cause of the pain.

Mechanical versus radicular

There are two categories of lower back pain:

• Mechanical pain— This is the most common cause and type of back pain. The muscles, ligaments, joints, or bones in and around the spine are behind mechanical pain. Mechanical pain is usually localized in the lower back, the buttocks, and sometimes the top of the legs.
• Radicular pain— This type of pain usually isn’t due to a muscle strain or other issue, but is due to a spinal nerve root being compressed or otherwise inflamed. Radicular pain often follows the nerve, radiating down into the buttock and/or the leg on the side where the nerve is compressed. This is sharp, burning pain. It can be accompanied by numbness and weakness.

If you have serious or chronic lower back pain, put our expertise to work relieving it. Call the team at DFW Center for Spinal Disorders, (817) 916-4785, to schedule your appointment.

Posted in: Back Pain