Sciatica is common source of leg pain.  The term Sciatica references the sciatic nerve which is responsible for both the feeling and movement of your legs.  As you may have guessed, you have two sciatic nerves, one for each leg.  There are many causes of sciatica but they all involve conditions that put pressure on the sciatic nerve.  When you have sciatica, the sciatic nerve is compressed by either a herniated or bulging disc, inflammation, tight spasmed muscles and some more serious conditions (such as infections and tumors- thankfully these are very rare).

Sciatica symtoms vary greatly.  Since the sciatic nerve is responsible for both relaying information about sensation (hot, cold, pressure, sharp pain, dull pain, numbness, tingling etc) and the control of the muscles in your legs, sciatica presents itself differently to different people.  Over my last 20 years in practice, I have seen that most cases of sciatica involve some weakness in the affected leg and usually pins and needles feelings and some times sharp electric type shooting pains that are often compared to the feeling of accidentally hitting your funny bone that travel up and down the leg.  Sometimes the pain travels all the way down the leg into the foot while other times it stays in the butt and yet other times it stops somewhere in between.

Sciatica treatment is focussed on relieving the pinched nerve.  Chiropractic care for sciatica includes adjustments, elecrtical muscle stimulation, ultrasound, stretching, exercising and lots of icing.  Since each person is different, the frequency and length of treatment for sciatica will vary.  One rule about treatment for all conditions applies to sciatica as well - the sooner you get care, the quicker and more complete your recovery will be.