If so than the pain has a high probability from coming from the facet joints in your spine! Facet joints are the joints that connect each of your spinal vertebrae together behind your intervertebral disks. Each spinal segment has two facet joints, one on each side and they assist the movement of bending forward and backward while limiting rotation and prevent the vertebrae from slipping over each other.
However, when the joint degenerate due to incorrect posture or trauma, it can turn into a source of pain, which is known as facet syndrome. Facet joints are located throughout your spine from your cervical spine (neck) to your lumbar spine (low back) and they are all susceptible to facet syndrome, with lumbar facet joint being the most commonly affected facet joint as lumbar spine bears the most weight and strain.
Depends on the region of facet joints affected, you may experience pain at different region of your body and the pain may radiate to other parts of your body far away from the affected facet joint.
Cervical (neck) facet syndrome may include the following symptoms:
Thoracic (mid-back) facet joint syndrome:
Lumbar (low back) facet syndrome may include the following symptoms:
Different regions of the spine have different causes to develop facet syndrome.
For neck and upper back, trauma such as whiplash from a car accident is a more common cause for facet syndrome to develop in those regions.
For lumbar spine, chronic overloading would be the leading cause of developing facet syndrome. As we age, our intervertebral discs can dehydrate, result in loss of disc height, which in turn put more stress on the facet joints in the back that stabilise the joint. This change of biomechanics will lead to degeneration of the facet joints themselves and develop facet syndrome. This is the reason why lumbar facet syndrome almost always coexists with other spinal degeneration conditions as they are all linked together.
Conservative, non-surgical approach is usually the first-line therapy to treat your back pain. Your doctor would usually develop a treatment plan that combine different forms of conservative treatments to maximise the treatment benefits. Some of the common conservative treatments are:
Conservative treatments can work wonders for most patients to control, manage and reduce the pain.
At Lakeside Chiropractic, our experienced chiropractors are well prepared to deal with patient presenting with lower back pain. We provide massage therapy, manual adjustment, cold laser therapy and more that may help reduce your pain and manage your condition. Lakeside chiropractic is located in Joondalup in Perth’s north and has visitors from many different suburbs including, Padbury, Kinross, Mindarie, Sorrento, Iluka, Carramar, Currambine, Tapping, Pearsall, Hocking and Woodvale. HICAPS Facilities available on site for major private health insurers (NIB, HCF, HBF, AHM, HCI and HIF) and also a part of the Medibank preferred practitioner and BUPA Members first network. If you would like to discuss any concerns, have any enquiries or wish to book an appointment; feel free to contact one of our friendly staff on 9300 0095 or visit our website at www.lakesidechiro.com.au.
