| Our Treatment |
| At SpineCare Consultants, we approach your pain problems in a different manner. Our goal is to identify and pinpoint the potential source of your pain and use this information to develop a treatment regiment that addresses your specific problem. We want to eliminate your pain and help you enjoy an active life again.
Take this quick test and see if any of the following symptoms describe your pain. If one or more of these symptoms describes your pain, contact our office for an initial appointment with one of our physicians in Houston or Humble.
• You hurt when you lean backwards, but you feel better when you lean forward.
• You feel worse in this morning when you getup.
• You have pain in your neck that seems to“travel” and creates pain at the bottom of your skull, on the back of your shoulder or other areas.
• You wake up in the middle of the night with pain.
• You feel pain down the leg, but not past the knee.
• Your pain worsens when you bend or move forward. However, you feel better when you bend backwards or try to “stretch” your back.
• Your pain becomes worse throughout the day as you do your job or other normal, routine activities.
• Your pain intensifies when you sit for long periods of time.
• Your pain travels down your arm or leg and you have numbness or weakness in that limb.
• You have trouble sleeping at night due to pain in your arm, hip or leg. |
| Spinal Cord |
| The spinal cord is the major bundle of nerves that carry nerve impulses to and from the brain to the rest of the body. The brain and the spinal cord constitute the Central Nervous System. Motor and sensory nerves outside the central nervous system constitute the Peripheral Nervous System, and another diffuse system of nerves that control involuntary functions such as blood pressure and temperature regulation are the Sympathetic and Parasympathetic Nervous Systems. The spinal cord is surrounded by rings of bone called vertebra. |
| Vertebrae |
| Vertebrae are the bones that form the spine. There are vertebrae from the top of the neck to the bottom of the spine.
The vertebrae are named for different parts of the spine.
• The top of the spine is called the cervical
spine and has seven vertebrae.
• The thoracic spine is the middle part of the
spine and contains 12 vertebrae.
• The bottom of the spine is called the
lumbar spine with five vertebrae.
Side openings between the vertebra were the nerves exit are called foramen. |
| Nerves |
| Nerves exit the spinal column through the foramen and lead to various parts of the body. A nerve root is the part of a nerve that leaves the spinal canal. If a nerve root is pinched by a disk bulge or by arthritis within the joint spaces, pain can be felt in your back as well as along an arm or a leg. |
| Foramen |
| The foramen is an opening between vertebrae. |
| Facets |
| Facets are joints between the vertebrae in the back of the spine. There are joints located between every vertebra in the spine. Capsules that cover the facet joints can become inflamed or arthritic, causing pain. Usually, facet-based pain feels worse when you lean backwards and feels better when you lean forward. |
| Disks |
Disks separate the bony vertebrae and act as "shock absorbers" for your spine. The center of the disk is made of a jelly-like substance called the nucleus. The tough outer covering made of cartilage is called the annulus.
There are several ways in which disks can cause pain. The most common disk problems include: |
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A bulge (or herniation) of a disk can cause part of the disk to push onto a nerve root or the spinal cord  (to view)
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Even a small tear in the annulus (the outer covering of the disk) can cause a disk to generate pain (to view)
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When the nucleus of the disksqueezes out of the outer annulus cover into the spine. The nucleus material is very irritating to nerves. It causes a great deal of inflammation and often times pain whenever it gets out of the center of the disk. (click to view)
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