If the pain starts in your lower back and runs down through your hip, your leg, sometimes all the way to your foot — that’s sciatica, and you don’t have to live with it.

Most people who come to us with sciatica have already tried to wait it out. They’ve tried ibuprofen, a heating pad, sleeping with a pillow between their knees. Some have been told the only real fix is surgery. What they usually haven’t had is someone take the time to find out why the nerve is being compressed in the first place.

That’s where we start. Dr. Mark Chiungos has been treating sciatica in Chelmsford since 1999, and in most cases we can relieve it without drugs and without an operating room.

Call (978) 376-8190 to schedule an evaluation.

What Sciatica Actually Is

Sciatica isn’t a diagnosis on its own — it’s a symptom. The sciatic nerve is the longest nerve in your body, running from your lower spine through each hip and down the back of each leg. When something presses on it or irritates it, you feel it along that whole path.

Most people describe some combination of:

• A sharp, electric or burning pain running from the low back or buttock down one leg
• Numbness, tingling or a “pins and needles” feeling in the leg or foot
• Weakness in the leg — a foot that drags, or a knee that feels unreliable
• Pain that gets worse when you sit, cough, sneeze or stand up after a while
• Pain on one side, usually, rather than both

What’s causing it

The most common culprits we see:

• A herniated or bulging disc — the disc material presses directly on the nerve root. This is the most frequent cause, and it’s also the one that responds best to decompression.
• Degenerative disc disease — discs lose height and hydration over time, narrowing the space the nerve passes through.
• Spinal stenosis — the spinal canal itself narrows, crowding the nerve.
• Piriformis syndrome — a muscle deep in the buttock tightens around the nerve. Not a disc problem at all, and it needs a different approach.

Those causes call for genuinely different treatment, which is why we don’t hand every sciatica patient the same protocol. Finding out which one you’re dealing with is the first appointment.

How We Relieve Sciatica

SpineMED® spinal decompression — for disc-related sciatica

When the cause is a herniated, bulging or degenerating disc, SpineMED® spinal decompression is often the most direct answer.

SpineMED is an FDA-cleared table that gently separates the affected vertebrae, creating negative pressure inside the disc. That does two things: it can draw the herniated material back away from the nerve, and it lets fluid and nutrients move back into a disc that has been starved of both.

You lie fully clothed on the table. There’s no anesthesia, no incision, and no recovery period — most patients read or rest through the session and drive themselves home afterward. It’s a series of treatments rather than a single fix, and we’ll be straightforward with you about whether you’re a good candidate before you commit to anything.

Not every chiropractic office in the Merrimack Valley has this technology. It’s one of the main reasons people drive to us from outside Chelmsford.

Chiropractic adjustment and laser therapy — for the inflammation and mechanics

Decompression addresses the disc. It doesn’t, on its own, address the joint restriction and inflammation that usually come with it.

Targeted chiropractic adjustments restore proper motion to the segments above and below the problem, which takes load off the irritated area. And Aspen Apex Laser Therapy uses specific light wavelengths to reduce inflammation around the nerve and support tissue repair — drug-free, and useful when the nerve is angry enough that manual work alone is uncomfortable.

For most sciatica patients, some combination of the three works better than any one alone.

Why It’s Worth Trying the Conservative Route First

Back surgery is sometimes necessary. If you have progressive weakness, or you’re losing bladder or bowel control, that’s an emergency and you need a surgeon, not a chiropractor — we’ll tell you that plainly and help you get there.

But most sciatica isn’t that. For the majority of disc-related cases, conservative care is the reasonable first step: it’s non-invasive, there’s no recovery time, and it doesn’t close off any options. Surgery is still available if conservative care doesn’t work. The reverse isn’t true.

Before you consider surgery, call us at (978) 376-8190 and let’s find out what we’re actually dealing with.

What Happens at Your First Visit

We schedule longer appointments than most practices, on purpose. Your first visit is a real evaluation — history, orthopedic and neurological testing, and a conversation about what you’re feeling and when.

At the end of it you’ll know what we think is causing your sciatica, whether we believe we can help, and what a course of care would actually involve. If we don’t think we’re the right fit, we’ll say so and point you somewhere better.

More about what to expect as a new patient →

Insurance and Medicare

We accept Medicare, Harvard Pilgrim, Tufts Health Plan, BlueCross BlueShield, and UniCare/GIC.

Medicare covers chiropractic spinal adjustment when it’s medically necessary. Most commercial plans include a chiropractic benefit, though visit limits and copays vary by plan. Coverage for spinal decompression specifically varies more — call us and we’ll help you check your benefits before your first appointment rather than after.

Serving Chelmsford and the Merrimack Valley

Our office is at 5 Fletcher Street in Chelmsford, easy to reach from Route 3 and I-495. We regularly see patients from Chelmsford, North Chelmsford, Westford, Tewksbury, Billerica and Lowell.

A Chiropractic Wellness Place, PC
5 Fletcher Street, Chelmsford, MA 01824
(978) 376-8190

Schedule your evaluation →

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a chiropractor fix sciatica?

A chiropractor can often relieve sciatica by addressing what’s compressing the nerve — most commonly a disc problem or joint restriction in the lower spine. Whether it resolves fully depends on the cause and how long it’s been going on. Disc-related sciatica caught earlier tends to respond better than sciatica that’s been ignored for years, which is a good argument for getting evaluated sooner rather than later.

How long does sciatica take to improve with spinal decompression?

It varies by person and by how much disc involvement there is. Many patients notice a change in their leg pain within the first few weeks, but decompression is a course of treatment rather than a one-visit fix. We’ll give you a realistic timeline after your evaluation rather than a generic number up front.

Is SpineMED® decompression covered by insurance?

Coverage for spinal decompression varies more between plans than standard chiropractic care does. Some plans cover it, some don’t, and some cover it under specific conditions. Call our office at (978) 376-8190 and we’ll help you verify your specific benefits before you start.

Do I need a referral to see a chiropractor in Massachusetts?

No. Massachusetts is a direct-access state, so you can schedule with a chiropractor without a physician’s referral. Some insurance plans have their own referral requirements, so it’s worth a quick check with your carrier — or with us.

Is sciatica ever an emergency?

Rarely, but yes. If you develop rapidly worsening leg weakness, numbness in the groin or inner thighs, or any loss of bladder or bowel control, seek emergency medical care immediately — those can indicate cauda equina syndrome, which needs urgent surgical evaluation.