Before understanding how degenerative disc disease is diagnosed, let’s first start with what is degenerative disc disease, what causes it, and what are the symptoms?
What is Degenerative Disc Disease?
Degenerative disc disease is when you have normal changes that have taken place in the disks of your spine and they cause you pain.
Your spinal discs are similar to the shocks in your vehicle, as they absorb the pressure between your vertebrae (or bones) of your spine. Your spinal discs help you stay flexible and allow you to bend and twist. With the natural aging process, they can show signs of wear and tear as they begging to not work as well and break down.
Although most people will experience disc breakdown, not everyone will feel the pain that can come along.
What causes of Degenerative Disc Disease?
There are a variety of factors that can cause degenerative disc disease, including your age. Other factors include:
- Disc drying out. Your discs are about 80 percent water when you are born and as you age the discs dry out and the result is they don’t absorb shock as well as they did when you were younger.
- An active lifestyle and sports can also lead to tears in the outer core of your discs. By the time you are 60 years old, most people will have some type of disc degeneration. However, not everyone will have the pain that comes along with degenerations.
- Injury is another cause of degenerative disc disease as it causes swelling, soreness and instability leading to lower back pain.
There are also some careers that can you put at a higher risk of developing degenerative disc disease.
What are the symptoms of Degenerative Disc Disease?
Your exact symptoms can vary depending on where the weak disc is located within your spine and the changes it has caused. However, you will likely feel sharp and constant pain in your neck and back.
Common Symptoms:
- Pain in your lower back, upper thighs, and buttocks.
- Your pain is worse when you are sitting and better when you are moving around.
- You feel worse when you bend, twist or lift.
- You feel better when you change positions or lie down.
It’s also possible when you have degenerative disc disease to feel numbness and tingling in your arms and legs as well as leg weakness. This is caused by your damaged discs near the nerves near your spine.
Now that you have a better understanding of what degenerative disc disease is, what causes it and the symptoms, let’s talk about the diagnosis.
How is Degenerative Disc Disease Diagnosed?
To begin the diagnosis process you will have an appointment with your primary doctor to review your medical history and discuss your symptoms. Your doctor may ask you:
- When did your pain begin?
- What part of your spine hurts?
- Have you had any past spinal injuries?
- Has the pain spread to any other part of your body?
- Do you have any family history of spine problems?
You should expect your doctor to look at your spine and may also ask you to walk or bend to see which movements cause you pain.
If your doctor suspects you may have a spine disorder, like disc degenerative disease they will order more testing.
There are a variety of tests that your doctor may order at first, like an X-ray, MRI, or a CT Scan. These tests can be used to find abnormalities, but will not be able to pinpoint the source of your pain. Without being able to pinpoint the area of pain, it can lead to not being able to solve your problem.
After an initial test of an X-Ray, MRI, or CT Scan, if abnormalities are found, you should expect additional testing. A common test used is a discography, this test can help indicate the location of your pain, however not in a natural state. There is also a concern for an increased risk of long-term damage from this type of testing.
The gold standard for testing for degenerative disc disease is an annulogram. Like with discography, the test can pinpoint the source of the pain. It is a delicate and refined test that can also identify disc tears and very small subtle tears to help ensure long-term relief.
