Spinal osteoarthritis is a condition where the cartilage in your spine starts to deteriorate. This can cause bone spurs to occur in the spine, which becomes painful and debilitating. Luckily, there are several treatment options for this condition.

Medications

Spinal osteoarthritis is often treated with medications, which both help to reduce inflammation of the spine, as well as reduce pain. Anti-inflammatory drugs and analgesics are available over-the-counter and are often recommended by physicians. They both have few side effects, but it is important that you only take them as directed. Consult your doctor if they are not helping to relieve your pain. There are also some topical medications you can use that help to reduce pain when someone rubs them on your back and neck. Lidocaine patches are also available to offer temporary numbness and pain relief of the problem area.

Physical Therapy

Getting regular exercise is important to relieving your pain and increasing your mobility. Like other types of arthritis, spinal osteoarthritis can cause issues with how easily you can move around. A good way to get exercise is with physical therapy. They will show you a variety of different stretches and exercises that can help treat your condition. Among them are range of motion exercises, which reduce stiffness and make your back more limber, helping to improve your mobility with this condition. Contact a company like Advance Physical Therapy & Sports Rehabilitation to learn more about physical therapy. 

Massage

You may also want to get treatment in the form of massage. This might be from a chiropractor or physiotherapist, or a traditional massage therapist. There are many different types of healing massages that help with spinal osteoarthritis, such as therapeutic massage. This type of massage will reduce inflammation and pain, help with muscle spasms, and improve your circulation. The more often you go for your healing massages, the more effective they will be in the long run.

Surgery

Some patients don't find relief with other treatment methods and therefore need surgery. A vertebral fusion is often performed on patients with osteoarthritis, which can help close two different joints in the spine. With this condition, the separation of the joints might cause friction, which increases your pain. With this procedure, those joints are fused together, thus reducing the pain and discomfort you experience.

If you suspect that you have spinal osteoarthritis, talk to your doctor for diagnosis and to discuss your treatment options. It is not uncommon to use multiple treatments at one time for well-rounded relief.