“How many acupuncture treatments are needed for sciatica?”
I am a 36 year old female. I want to know how many acupuncture treatments are needed for sciatica?
28 Answers
AcupuncturistAcupuncturist
This would be up to your practitioner. As a rule of thumb I like to give 4 to 6 treatments then re-evaluate to decide if more are needed.
Lejla Fazlicic
Acupuncturist
At least 4- 6 to see improvement.
Good luck
Dr. Leila
Good luck
Dr. Leila
Patients with acute sciatica may find relief within two to three acupuncture sessions. On the other hand, patients with chronic sciatica usually require about eight to 12 treatments depending on what caused the problem (e.g. disc herniation, stenosis, bone spurs).
For my experience, it takes about average 5 treatments with my method.
Sciatica usually indicates sciatic never is pinched or compressed. It may need 10 to 20 treatments depending on the severity of the injury. Generally speaking the yanger you are the fast response. In our practice we usually treat more than 10 people who are suffering sciatic. Hope this answer your question. Dr. Yali Li
There is no pat answer for that, I'm afraid. Outcomes are variable and dependent upon a multitude of things. Have you isolated the root of the problem? Which vertebrae are involved? If it's a piriformis issue? Do you sit all day for your job? Do you wear supportive footwear? Do you stand all day for your job? How active are you? Do you do a lot of bending? As you can see there are many variables involved, another being...do you have a previous injury and are you being treated for that injury? How I would proceed to treat sciatica would depend upon the extent of damage/injury amongst other things. This would not be a quick fix and many treatments may be warranted. There is no way to tell you how many until I see how you respond to treatment.
In the meantime, you can help yourself by wearing supportive shoes (no flip flops, walking on bare feet, etc.), doing daily stretches (as tolerated), using heat or ice as desired, doing more light walking or exercise, drinking plenty of water, using support pillows in your chairs and bed to allow for lumbar support. Seeing your PCP and most definitely a chiropractor should be your first stop. If the bones/tendons/muscles are out of place, you may need an adjustment and then seek acupuncture services.
Good luck and feel better!!
In the meantime, you can help yourself by wearing supportive shoes (no flip flops, walking on bare feet, etc.), doing daily stretches (as tolerated), using heat or ice as desired, doing more light walking or exercise, drinking plenty of water, using support pillows in your chairs and bed to allow for lumbar support. Seeing your PCP and most definitely a chiropractor should be your first stop. If the bones/tendons/muscles are out of place, you may need an adjustment and then seek acupuncture services.
Good luck and feel better!!
Bet 1-10 needles.
An acupuncturist will perform an in-depth examination for each patient, before providing a prognosis. Usually a course of treatments is advised before a reevaluation. A course of treatments fluctuate between 5 and 10 sessions depending on each patient presentation.
It’s hard to tell how many sessions you might need for your sciatica. It depends on your condition. A good master will help you out.
Everyone is different. There is no set rule for how many treatments are needed for any condition. First one must determine the underlying cause. Depending on the cause and howling the condition has existed will affect the time needed for recovery. Typically for many conditions 10-12 treatments are needed. Foe older people they may need more treatments, less for children. Approximately, one month for every year the condition went untreated. There are many variables in determining the number of treatments. The best thing is to see an acupuncturist and let them evaluate your condition and tell you what they think will be the number of treatments needed fir your specific case.
2-6 treatments depending on evaluation - Dr. Gordon
Everyone responds differently to acupuncture, but typically you should see results after the first treatment.
I would say 2〜4times for sciatica.
Hello,
Thank you for your inquiry. It is hard to say exactly without knowing the duration and severity of what’s going on. As a general rule of thumb, I advise people to give it at least 3-6 treatments before they start seeing good results, though it can and often does happen quicker than that. After doing the intake during the initial consultation, I’d be able to give you a more concrete treatment plan.
Hope that helps!
Dr. Raegan K. Lima, D.T.C.M., L.Ac.
Thank you for your inquiry. It is hard to say exactly without knowing the duration and severity of what’s going on. As a general rule of thumb, I advise people to give it at least 3-6 treatments before they start seeing good results, though it can and often does happen quicker than that. After doing the intake during the initial consultation, I’d be able to give you a more concrete treatment plan.
Hope that helps!
Dr. Raegan K. Lima, D.T.C.M., L.Ac.
Typically, I expect to see a sciatica patient for 10-12 sessions (or more), at 2-3 treatments per week. But there are many variables in that. How long the pain has been experienced? Was there damage to the nerve root (e.g. herniated disk)? In general, however, there should be some relief after the first session, that is then built on by subsequent sessions.
It depends. Every case is different and each patient responds differently to the treatment. Your acupuncturist will make an assessment at the first visit and based on findings she will present you a treatment plan.
Hello,
You will need to schedule between 4-6 acupuncture treatments and then evaluate progress.
Take care.
You will need to schedule between 4-6 acupuncture treatments and then evaluate progress.
Take care.
Sciatica treatments usually take three to ten times. The treatment times depend on the situation of the patient.
Every person is different, but it generally takes a series of treatments to get rid of sciatica.
4 needles.
We usually recommend 6 visits for subacute or chronic pain.
Mr. Anthony James Lorenzo
Acupuncturist
Hard to say without evaluating you personally and comprehensively. And still, would only be a guess. I have had some patients better in 5 treatments and at least one i had to treat for months, 2x weekly, to get them pain free.
For acute cases, a patient may get relief within 2-3 treatments. For more chronic issues, it could take up to 8-12 treatments depending on other circumstances, such as disc herniation, stenosis, etc. Acupuncture and strengthening exercises are a great place to start the healing process of low back pain and sciatica.
That depends on the reason why you have sciatica, how long you've had it, and your compliance with your practitioners treatment protocols (taking herbs, doing stretches, etc). Generally speaking, the longer a condition has been in existence, the longer it will take to resolve. That being said, if you're not feeling some changes or improvement within 5-8 treatments, it may be in your best interest to seek a new acupuncturist or a different style of acupuncture.
Everyone is different. It will depend on how long you have had it, what is causing it, how good your body is at healing itself, and if you do daily repetitive movements that cause it. I encourage everyone to go in for a course of treatment that is 6 to 10 visits, but I have seen many people get better sooner than that.
Between 6-10 sessions.
It depends on your conditions, generally to speaking, 8 to 10 sessions enough.
The "how many treatments" question is one I get a lot. It's very difficult to answer for several reasons:
1. The Chinese diagnostic system takes in to account individual factors in presentation. Three people could walk in to my clinic with "sciatica" but, from the perspective of Chinese medicine, all three could be experiencing sciatica for different reasons. Those different root causes will have different treatments. Some root causes respond faster to treatment than others and some people respond faster to treatment than others.
2. There are a variety of different systems of acupuncture. Some of these systems are better for dealing with certain kinds of issues relative to other systems. Without knowing what kind of acupuncture your provider practices, it's hard to know whether or not there's a good fit between that system of acupuncture and your issue.
3. As in conventional medicine, some practitioners are just better with certain kinds of issues relative to other practitioners. There's an add-on here specific to acupuncture: depending on where you're located, there could be providers who offer "acupuncture" without having attended school for Chinese medicine or actually being licensed or board certified as an acupuncturist. Without knowing whether or not you're seeing a board certified and state licensed acupuncturist and what that person's track record with pain conditions it is, again, difficult to predict what a course of therapy might look like.
Let's make a few assumptions and try to give some general guidance. Assuming your sciatica isn't severe in terms of either frequency or pain levels (i.e. you're typically under 5-6/10 on a pain scale and there are days or times during the day where you experience no pain) and assuming you're seeing a board certified, state licensed acupuncturist (as opposed to a chiropractor or physical therapist) and assuming that person works primarily with pain conditions, you may be looking at something like 5 or 6 treatments spaced one week apart to bring the issue, more or less, under control. After that you might be looking at a few treatments with a greater spacing (every other week or every third week) and then you're probably looking at either issue resolution or maintenance.
Maintenance is likewise variable. On the low end you could be receiving one treatment every 4-6 weeks. On the high end you could be looking at one treatment per year.
1. The Chinese diagnostic system takes in to account individual factors in presentation. Three people could walk in to my clinic with "sciatica" but, from the perspective of Chinese medicine, all three could be experiencing sciatica for different reasons. Those different root causes will have different treatments. Some root causes respond faster to treatment than others and some people respond faster to treatment than others.
2. There are a variety of different systems of acupuncture. Some of these systems are better for dealing with certain kinds of issues relative to other systems. Without knowing what kind of acupuncture your provider practices, it's hard to know whether or not there's a good fit between that system of acupuncture and your issue.
3. As in conventional medicine, some practitioners are just better with certain kinds of issues relative to other practitioners. There's an add-on here specific to acupuncture: depending on where you're located, there could be providers who offer "acupuncture" without having attended school for Chinese medicine or actually being licensed or board certified as an acupuncturist. Without knowing whether or not you're seeing a board certified and state licensed acupuncturist and what that person's track record with pain conditions it is, again, difficult to predict what a course of therapy might look like.
Let's make a few assumptions and try to give some general guidance. Assuming your sciatica isn't severe in terms of either frequency or pain levels (i.e. you're typically under 5-6/10 on a pain scale and there are days or times during the day where you experience no pain) and assuming you're seeing a board certified, state licensed acupuncturist (as opposed to a chiropractor or physical therapist) and assuming that person works primarily with pain conditions, you may be looking at something like 5 or 6 treatments spaced one week apart to bring the issue, more or less, under control. After that you might be looking at a few treatments with a greater spacing (every other week or every third week) and then you're probably looking at either issue resolution or maintenance.
Maintenance is likewise variable. On the low end you could be receiving one treatment every 4-6 weeks. On the high end you could be looking at one treatment per year.
