Nerve Pain Treatment Sydney | Chiropractor Northern Beaches

Nerve Pain Treatment Sydney Chiropractor

Condition: Nerve Pain

Pain from the nerves is often intense and accompanied with pins and needles and numbness. Spasms occur in the muscles that the nerve supplies. If severe enough weakness and paralysis can occur.

The most common areas where nerve damage occurs in practice are the sciatica (back of leg), femoral nerve (front of leg) and the arm from the lower cervical nerves.

Sciatica translates from Latin to mean leg pain. Medically it refers to pain in the back of the leg due to irritation of the sciatic nerve – which is derived from the L4 to S1 nerve roots â these exit from the lower lumbar spine. The sciatic nerve is like a cable and when irritated can affect the hamstring, calf and foot. Nerve roots above this level form the femoral nerve and supply the front of the thigh and groin. Irritation to the lower cervical nerves can cause pain, weakness, spasms, pins and needles and paralysis in the arm and hand.

To discuss your Nerve Pain and arrange an appointment for treatment please contact one of our helpful receptionists today on (Sydney) (02) 9971 9597 or make an enquiry here.

Symptoms of Nerve Pain & Impacts on the Body

Nerve pain can be a mild to annoying ache to totally intolerable depending on the cause and severity. There are two main reasons for nerve pain. The first is indirect irritation from inflammation of adjacent structures like joints, muscles, ligaments and discs. Symptoms range from mild to severe pain and tightness and pins and needles. Direct pressure on the nerve causes lack of sensation and if severe enough paralysis. This is less common and can eventually lead to spinal surgery. Mostly this is caused by a ruptured disc where direct pressure is on the nerve. Spinal stenosis (blockage due to degeneration) and spinal tumors are rarer but need to be ruled out as a cause of direct pressure.

Sciatica is often caused by disc problems.

Approximately 30 to 40% of 25 to 45 year olds have a disc bulge that has no symptoms (is asymptomatic). This is because the disc tears from the centre out and the inner two thirds of the disc are not innervated (supplied with nerves) so people are not aware of the damage. This process distorts and weakens the rest of the disc. Only when the outer third is innervated is local back pain typically present. The fluid in the nucleus may escape which is considered by the body to be foreign material so an inflammatory response is created and the adjacent nerves become swollen leading to referred pain. Pain can be severe but it usually resolves. Severe disc protrusion with extrusion of disc material can impact on the nerve causing permanent nerve damage. Sciatica (referred leg pain from the lumbar nerves) can range from mild leg tightness to paralysis in the leg muscles and even bladder and sexual function loss.

What Causes Nerve Pain?

Disc Injury

The Mechanism of disc injury is compression and torsion of the disc under load. This happens when someone lifts and twists especially away from your body. This can happen over time with repetitive movements (more common) or during lifting something way too heavy or an unexpected load. Often the final straw can be quite a trivial or minor lift (the straw that broke the camel’s back). Early morning is also a more dangerous time as the disc absorbs fluid and is more taut in the morning. Occupations that involve prolonged period of sitting with bad posture increase your risk of disc and nerve injury. Cervical damage can be caused by whiplash or prolonged poor postures. Pre-existing spinal misalignment constantly puts increased load on your discs so considering that even children can be out of alignment and that in the earlier stages there are no symptoms we consider it very important to allow children to get regular chiropractic checkups

Joint Damage

Poor biomechanics/subluxation due to poor posture and injuries over years can lead to premature arthritis resulting in inflammation leading to irritation to the nerve.

Stenosis/ Spinal Tumor

Referral to a surgeon is required


Shingles is a viral infection of the nerve root and is characterized with a burning pain and rash along the path of the nerve.

Organic pain

Referred pain in left arm from an organ (heart attack)

Massey Family Chiropractor’s Nerve Pain Treatment Method

As always the chiropractor will examine your entire spine for spinal misalignment (subluxation). The more subluxations that you have the more stress on your discs as well as your joints, ligaments and muscles making you more prone to nerve irritation and damage.  Correction of the subluxations does not automatically repair the disc, muscles and joints – however chiropractic treatment takes the load and stress off these structures so that they can heal over time – which in turn allows the nerve to recover. Obviously the earlier someone starts chiropractic the less chance of damage occurring. Unfortunately a lot of people present in acute pain with a disc tear or an inflamed spinal joint with nerve pain. As chiropractors we promote preventative care and would like to prevent people getting nerve problems in the first place. Chiropractic treatment for acute spinal nerve injury requires a conservative, safe and gentle approach.

Nerve Pain – Recovery Rates. What to Expect?

Success depends the severity and cause of the nerve damage. The majority of nerve symptoms will resolve totally in 3 to 6 weeks. Obviously increased referred pain and weakness is a bad sign in your limbs. This could be a result of a severe disc herniation with the contents extruded. Clinical signs and a MRI (special scan) will confirm this and often a consult to a surgeon will be warranted and possible surgery required. Thankfully this is rare. As a chiropractor my role is to prevent or slow the more gradual and unfortunately asymptomatic wear and tear process of the disc and joints by maintaining good spinal alignment. This means chiropractic is a continual process like getting your car serviced or doing the garden regularly. That’s why most of my clients visit approximately once a month for a checkup.


Further Resources: For further information about Nerve Pain we recommend your reading this guide