Back Pain Brushing Your Teeth? Could it be a slipped disc?

When brushing your teeth in the morning do you have back pain? Do you get a pain running down your leg when you are bending over the bathroom sink?

These could be signs of a bulging disc between the vertebrae in the base of your spine. When you bend forwards to brush your teeth in the morning, the front part of the disc is compressed, causing the back part of the disc to bulge more. That bulging at the back of the disc can be painful, and if the bulge touches on the nearby nerve root, it can cause pain to shoot down your buttock and leg.

Bulging of the disc is often worst in the mornings because the discs are usually most hydrated and “jucier” first thing in the morning. During the course of the day the disc gradually dehydrates from the water content being squeezed out of them, and over-night they re-hydrate. While lying in bed over-night, there has been little compressive force from gravity and being upright running down the length of the spine. When waking up the disc is jucier and there is more to bulge out when bending forwards while brushing your teeth.

If you do experience low back pain and pain going down a leg in the mornings while bending forwards to brush your teeth, this could be an indication that you have a bulging disc.

Each year we help hundreds of people to avoid surgery on their spine. We help people reduce pain killers and to get back to doing the things they love to do. Many patients are concerned and worried about having surgery on their spine. Our approach to treating disc problems is to reduce muscle spasm (spasm can cause increased disc pressure and pain), we mobilise the vertebrae to create more “space” for the nerve to move (to help to decompress that nerve) and to mobilise the “trapped” nerve root to free it from the area of compression.

We use specific exercises to floss the nerve, to mobilise the spine and to reduce pressure on the disc and nerve. See what some of our patients say about how we’ve helped them.

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