As one ages, the spinal intervertebral disc undergoes significant changes. The normal intervertebral disk is composed of eighty percent water. With age, that percentage begins to decrease and the spinal disc begins to lose hydration and undergo degeneration.

Some discs undergo rapid degeneration and that can lead to degenerative disc disease. This may or may not result in pain. The disk may lose height from losing water, and it may also begin to bulge analogous to a tire that is flattening and bulging. Degeneration of the disc is diagnosed from an MRI or x-rays, which may be ordered by a Arizona Pain Center.Disc degeneration can also be worked up by a Phoenix Chiropractor.

Just because an individual has disc degeneration of spinal disks does not always mean pain is inevitable since there are many people walking around with disks that are degenerating, dehydrating, and bulging but not causing any pain.

As the spinal disc continues to degenerate, it can lead to a cascade of degenerative spinal arthritis that occurs as follows. As the disk degenerates and loses water, it also loses disk height. The spinal joints behind the disk space, called facet joints, start to experience abnormal stresses as the disk becomes defective in its ability to absorb stress. These stresses then are shifted to the spinal elements at the same level, in this case the facet joints.

Degeneration of the facet joints occurs and arthritis ensues, this involves bony overgrowth around the joints with further pain. Because the degenerative disc is not always affected symmetrically, the patient may end up with scoliosis due to the degeneration that continues to build on itself.

Treatments for degenerative disc disease are multiple. They all are treatments to improve quality of life, as spinal arthritis and degenerative disk disease are not life threatening. Pain management doctors offer facet injections, nucleoplasty, phoenix physical therapy, spinal decompression therapy, bracing, radiofrequency ablation, among other treatments. Surgery should be considered as an absolute last resort.

How Does Degeneration Of The Disc Lead To Spinal Arthritis?

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