Spine Specialist Near Me in Boles, MO

Spine specialist near me in Boles, MO. Spinal conditions can make everyday activities like laying down painful, and interrupt how our bodies function. For people who play sports, back issues can prevent you from being at peak performance. For breadwinners, it can impede your ability to put food on the table for your Boles, MO family. For others, it can keep us from taking walks or other physical activities. Physical therapists with a spine specialty can help you get back to the functional and pain-free life you’re looking for. By developing a personalized treatment plan, based on techniques proven to work, Axes Physical Therapy can help you live your best life. If you’re ready to finally be free from a crippling back condition, request an appointment with an Axes Boles, MO spine specialist, or get in touch with the Axes location most convenient for you.

Missouri law mandates that a prescription is required for physical therapy. If you’re dealing with a recent injury or find that back pain is disrupting your daily life, ask your doctor if physical therapy with a spine specialist in Boles, MO is right for you. You can also come see us for one of Axes’ complimentary injury screenings.

The Human Spine

The spine supports both our physical bodies, and how our bodies communicate. It begins at the base of your skull and ends at your tailbone. There are several different parts of your spine:

Vertebrae

The spine has 33 vertebrae, which are small bones that form the backbone. The spinal cord and nerves run through holes in the middle of each vertebra. There are five vertebral groups. There are:

• 7 vertebrae in the cervical region (your neck)
• 12 vertebrae in the thoracic region (your middle back)
• 5 vertebrae in the lumbar region (your lower back)
• 5 vertebrae in the sacrum region (the triangle shaped bone that connects to the hips)
• 4 vertebrae in the coccyx region (your tailbone)

The 24 vertebrae in the cervical, thoracic, and lumbar regions allow us to move; the others are immobile.

Facet Joints

Each vertebra is connected to two facet joints which connect the bones to each other. They allow your back and neck to perform a variety of movements. They are lined with cartilage and lubricated with synovial fluid, allowing healthy bones and joints to safely glide and slide during movement.

Intervertebral Discs

Discs are the flat, round cushions between the vertebrae that absorb shock and prevent the vertebrae from grinding against each other. Every two vertebrae have one disc between them. Discs have a “gel-like” center known as the nucleus pulposus, which allows for mobility and absorption, and a tough, circular exterior called the annulus fibrosus that prevent the gel-like center from leaking out.

Spinal Cord

The spinal cord is a long, thin, tubular collection of nerves, extending from the brain to your lumbar region, where the nerves continue into your legs. The spinal cord is protected by the vertebral column. The neural foramen are openings in the vertebrae that allow the nerves to go into other parts of the body. The spinal cord allows our brain to tell our bodies to move, and our brains to receive sensory information from our body.

Soft Tissue

The spine also has various types of soft tissue. Ligaments connect bones together, hold them in place, and give them structure. Tendons attach muscles to the vertebrae, and the muscles are what powers the spine’s movement.

A healthy spine needs all of these different structures to function properly and in unison to achieve optimal movement health and a pain free life. A variety of factors can interfere with the spine and keep you from the things you love doing. When that happens, a spine specialist in Boles, MO like Axes’ physical therapists can provide safe and effective relief.

What Injuries Can a Spine Specialist in Boles, MO Treat Me For?

The American College of Physicians developed guidelines that include certain physical therapy treatments for lower back pain and neck pain. Whether you’re living with chronic pain or recently suffered a sports injury, Axes’ Boles, MO spine specialists can help you live your best life. Some of the common conditions we provide relief and improved function for in Boles, MO are:

• Disc Injuries — Herniated discs and bulging discs can be the result of either acute trauma or wear and tear from aging. They put pressure on a nerve which can cause severe pain along your neck and back and limit strength. Degenerative disc disease occurs as a natural result of aging, and can have symptoms similar to herniated discs.
• Sciatica — Sciatica refers to a variety of conditions which irritate the sciatic nerve, which is the largest nerve in the body and originates in the lumbar region. Symptoms include immense pain, weakness, and numbness from your buttocks all the way down to your foot.
• Spinal Stenosis — Stenosis occurs when the vertebral column is too small. Symptoms include pain, problems with walking or other movements, and loss of sensation in the extremities.
• Spinal Arthritis — Arthritis is swelling or tenderness in one or more joints. It onsets as the cartilage between the joints degrades over time or from repeated injuries. It can also be caused by autoimmune disorders. There are over 100 types of arthritis, most of which are possible in the spine.
• Axial Back Pain — Also known as nonspecific back pain, this refers to pain that doesn’t have a known, recognizable cause. Nonspecific back pain can be caused by obesity or poor posture.

Physical therapy is also an effective treatment option for muscle strains, whiplash, and other more acute injuries.

Whatever is causing your back pain or injury, our Boles, MO spine specialists will work in concert with you and your doctor to design an evidence-backed treatment plan to get you back to the things you love doing most and a more comfortable life. While some conditions, like stenosis, won’t ever fully go away, physical therapy can be part of a holistic wellness routine that eases symptoms and regains optimal mobility.

If you need surgery on your spine, we offer pre- and post-surgical rehab in Boles, MO to help you be healthy for surgery and recovery quickly and safely.

Benefits of Working With a Physical Therapy Spine Specialist in Boles, MO

More and more people are turning to physical therapy as a non-invasive treatment plan for a variety of issues affecting our musculoskeletal system. According to research published By the American College of Physicians, physical therapy can get the same relief and results for some back pain as surgery, without the same recovery time or risk of adverse side-effects. Early intervention by a licensed Boles, MO physical therapist has been demonstrated to reduce long-term opioid dependence.

A qualified spine specialist will be able to find the root cause of your back problems, and create a treatment plan based on your injures, how old you are, and your desired activity level. Through numerous different exercises and manual therapy, physical therapy can limit symptoms, improve the function of your spine by improving strength and flexibility, increase range of motion.

Physical Therapy for Spine Conditions

Depending on your specific condition, your Boles, MO spine specialist at Axes may include some of the following in your treatment plan:

• Manual Therapy — Our Boles, MO manual therapists are able to use light manipulations and stretches to decrease back pain caused by muscle or joint dysfunction. Hand-on services we may use to treat you include:
  • Trigger point dry needling
  • Soft tissue mobilization
  • Joint mobilization and manipulation
  • Trigger point massage
• Guided Exercise — Safe exercises are essential for helping you build up strength, flexibility, and balance. In addition to decreasing pain now, certain exercises will also help overall function and improve movement health. Exercises we might assign include:
  • Core stabilization
  • Postural retraining
  • Flexibility
  • Cardio conditioning
  • Strength training
  • Home exercise
• Injury Prevention — There’s nothing worse than believing you’ve overcome an injury, only to aggravate it. We help you understand your injury and how it affects your body’s function, so you’ll know how to protect your spine while being active. Our injury prevention program includes:
  • Patient education
  • Lifting education
  • Activity modification
  • Conditioning

Your treatment plan in Boles, MO will be based not on just recovery or pain relief, but on getting you to your best possible movement health and helping you stay there. However we recommend treating your spine condition or back pain, it will designed based on peer-reviewed studies that those techniques have been proven to work.

Other conditions we help treat in Boles, MO include:

• Neck Pain Treatment
• Physical Therapy Clinic
• Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Treatment
• Sciatica Treatment
• Sports Medicine
• Hand Pain Physical Therapy
• Foot & Ankle Pain Treatment
• Hip Pain Treatment
• Plantar Fasciitis Treatment
• Stroke Rehabilitation

Count on Axes For Your Spine Specialist Near Me in Boles, MO

Don’t allow a spine condition prevent you from living the life you want. At Axes, our Boles, MO spine specialists are dedicated to positive patient outcomes. Your pain may not have been your choice, but you do not have to decide to live with it. For a professional and qualified Boles, MO spine specialist to treat you, request an appointment with Axes Physical Therapy now or reach out to the location closest to you