Degenerative Disk Disease
Overview
Back pain can be one of the most uncomfortable and potentially debilitating physical ailments you experience during your lifetime. It can occur for many reasons, but one specific cause is degenerative disk disease.
Anatomy
Between the bones (vertebra) of the spine, you have components called disks. Disks are made up of a hard, tough outside and a soft interior. Disks provide a cushion between your spine’s vertebrae. They are necessary to help carry out everyday activities like walking, bending, and twisting.

Description
When disks wear down or sustain any type of injury, you can experience degenerative disk disease symptoms. Degenerative disk disease occurs when there are structural changes of the disk’s outer surface and inner sections.
Causes
Disk degeneration can result from several different underlying causes, including age, trauma, and illness. While everyone will experience some degree of disk degeneration as they age, not everyone will feel pain or other symptoms. Acute traumatic events like automobile accidents can result in disk damage. Additionally, various systemic diseases can result in disk decline.
Cracking is another cause of disk degeneration. The spine is the focal point of your body’s physical structure and capabilities. That said, movements like bending, shifting, and twisting performed countless times per day over many years take their toll on spinal disks. Eventually, such strain causes small cracks to occur on your disk’s outer walls. The outer walls contain nerves, which, if pressed upon, can be painful.
Larger cracks can allow the disk’s softer, inner part to escape. If this happens, the disk in question can shift out of place or swell. Such an event is called a herniated or slipped disk. This condition can also impact neighboring nerves, produce discomfort, and cause other associated symptoms.
Cervical disks are made up of mostly water. As you age, a disk’s water content decreases, causing the disk to thin out and flatten. Thin, flattened disks are less capable of withstanding pressure. Less water also equals reduced protection between your vertebrae. This leaves vertebrae and surrounding bones more vulnerable to rapid breakdown and injury.
Symptoms
The symptoms you experience may vary depending on factors such as where in your spine the injured disk is located, the extent of the damage, and the specific cause. You might expect to have one or more of these relatively common symptoms, like:
- Back or neck pain.
- Sharp, stabbing pain.
- Discomfort that comes and goes (or can be continual).
- Pain that worsens when you perform movements like bending or twisting.
- Uncomfortable feeling that might ease when you change positions or lie down.

In moderate to severe instances, you may also experience a tingling sensation or numbness in your arms and legs, and muscle weakness in your legs. These more pronounced occurrences typically mean your disks are pressing on spinal nerves.
Diagnosis
Reaching a clear and firm diagnosis can take time, investigation, and examination by your doctor. Spinal disk degeneration can be initially diagnosed by your family physician or an orthopedic specialist by performing a thorough physical assessment.
Should the examining doctor believe that you might have disk degeneration, they will first likely ask you several questions such as:
- When did the pain begin?
- Where in your back or neck do you feel discomfort?
- Does engaging in activity worsen or lessen the pain?
- Have you sustained any recent back injuries?
- Have you been diagnosed with any type of back, spinal, or physical problem before?
- Do you have a family history of any type of back or spinal issues?

Your doctor might then ask you to walk or perform specific movements. During the final evaluation stage, your doctor may order diagnostic tools such as x-rays or magnetic resonance imaging, commonly known as MRI scans. These tests allow the attending physician to study images of your spine more carefully. Such images reveal any disk deterioration and help confirm the diagnosis.
Treatment Overview
Fortunately, spinal disk deterioration can be treated. The specific option chosen by your doctor will depend on many issues, including your age, fitness level, general biological and physical health, in addition to the underlying cause and the degeneration’s severity. Therapeutic efforts can range from medications to surgical intervention.
Non-Surgical Treatment Options
Minor to moderate cases are often treated using non-surgical treatments such as:
- Physical Therapy. Your doctor may prescribe a course of physical therapy. In that case, you will perform several exercises over a specific time period designed to improve the mobility of and strengthen the muscles near where the damaged disk is located.
- Medications. If your pain is tolerable, you might only need pain relievers and inflammation-reducing drugs, readily available over-the-counter. But if associated discomfort interferes with your ability to go about daily tasks, your doctor might prescribe prescription pain medication. More moderate instances might require steroid injections – known for their ability to reduce swelling and inflammation quickly.
- Surgical Intervention. Luckily, medications and physical therapy sufficiently address a large percentage of spinal disk degeneration cases. However, when the pain is severe, surgery may be a preferred option. Your doctor might choose to remove a part or all a defective disk. Occasionally, disk removal is followed by fusion surgery, which involves connecting the adjacent spinal bones.
Next Steps
Degenerative disk disease is typically painful and can have a negative impact on your life. But many treatments are available. If you have been diagnosed with this condition or believe you might have it, we encourage you to contact one of the spine specialists at Florida Orthopaedic Institute.
Areas of Focus
- Spine
- Anterior Cervical Corpectomy & Discectomy
- Artificial Disk Replacement (ADR)
- Bone Cement Injection
- Degenerative Disk Disease
- Diffuse Idiopathic Skeletal Hyperostosis (DISH)
- Discectomy
- Discitis Treatment & Information
- Epidural Injections for Spinal Pain
- Foraminotomy
- Interlaminar Implants
- Interlaminar Lumbar Instrumental Fusion: ILIF
- Kyphoplasty (Balloon Vertebroplasty)
- Kyphosis
- Laminectomy: Decompression Surgery
- Lumbar Epidural Steroid Injection
- Lumbar Interbody Fusion (IBF)
- Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery
- Outpatient Spine Surgery
- Pinched Nerve
- Piriformis Syndrome
- Sacroiliac Joint Pain
- Sciatica
- Scoliosis
- Spinal Fusion
- Spondylolisthesis and Spondylolysis
- Vertebroplasty
- Whiplash and Whiplash Associated Disorder (WAD)
The following Florida Orthopaedic Institute physicians specialize in Degenerative Disk Disease:
Specialties
- AC Joint Injuries
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- Achilles Tendon Rupture
- Achilles Tendonitis
- ACL Injuries
- Ankle Fracture Surgery
- Ankle Fractures (Broken Ankle)
- Ankle Fusion Surgery
- Anterior Cervical Corpectomy & Discectomy
- Arthroscopic Articular Cartilage Repair
- Arthroscopic Chondroplasty
- Arthroscopic Debridement of the Elbow
- Arthroscopy Of the Ankle
- Articular Cartilage Restoration
- Artificial Disk Replacement (ADR)
- Aspiration of the Olecranon Bursa - Fluid In Elbow
- Atraumatic Shoulder Instability
- Avascular Necrosis (Osteonecrosis)
- Bankart Repair
- Basal Joint Surgery
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- Bicep Tenodesis
- Bone Cement Injection
- Bone Growth Stimulation
- Bone Health Clinic
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- Bunions
- Bursitis of the Shoulder (Subacromial Bursitis)
- Calcific Tendinitis of the Shoulder
- Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
- Charcot Joint
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- Colles’ Fractures (Broken Wrist)
- Common Foot Fractures in Athletes
- Community Outreach
- Cubital Tunnel Syndrome
- De Quervain's Tenosynovitis
- Deep Thigh Bruising
- Degenerative Disk Disease
- Diffuse Idiopathic Skeletal Hyperostosis (DISH)
- Discectomy
- Discitis Treatment & Information
- Dislocated Shoulder
- Dupuytren’s Disease
- Elbow
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- Hip & Thigh
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- Hip Hemiarthroplasty
- Hip Impingement Labral Tears
- Hip Muscle Strains
- Hip Pointers and Trochanteric Bursitis
- Hyperextension Injury of the Elbow
- Iliopsoas Tenotomy
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- Interlaminar Lumbar Instrumental Fusion: ILIF
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- Kyphoplasty (Balloon Vertebroplasty)
- Kyphosis
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- Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery
- Morton’s Neuroma
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- Muscle Strains of The Calf
- Nerve Pain
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- Orthopaedic Total Wellness
- Orthopedic Physician Or A Podiatrist? Definition of a Podiatrist
- Orthopedic Trauma
- Osteoarthritis of the Hip
- Osteoporosis
- Outpatient Spine Surgery
- Partial Knee Replacement
- Patellar Fracture
- Pelvic Ring Fractures
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- Pinched Nerve
- Piriformis Syndrome
- Piriformis Syndrome
- Plantar Fasciitis
- Podiatry
- Primary Care Sports Medicine
- Quadriceps Tendon Tear
- Radial Tunnel Syndrome (Entrapment of the Radial Nerve)
- Revascularization of the Hand
- Reverse Total Shoulder Replacement
- Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) of the Shoulder
- Rheumatoid Arthritis Of The Hand
- Robotics
- Rotator Cuff Tears
- Runner's Knee
- Sacroiliac Joint Pain
- Sciatica
- Scoliosis
- Shin Splints
- Shoulder
- Shoulder Arthritis
- Shoulder Arthroscopy
- Shoulder Injury: Pain In The Overhead Athlete
- Shoulder Replacement
- Shoulder Separations
- Shoulder Socket Fracture (Glenoid Fracture)
- SLAP Tears & Repairs
- Spinal Fusion
- Spine
- Spondylolisthesis and Spondylolysis
- Sports Foot Injuries
- Sports Hernias (Athletic Pubalgia)
- Sports Medicine
- Sports Wrist and Hand Injuries
- Sprained Ankle
- Sprained Wrist Symptoms and Treatment
- Subacromial Decompression
- Sudden (Acute) Finger, Hand & Wrist Injuries
- Targeted Muscle Reinnervation (TMR)
- Tendon Transfers of The Hand
- Tennis Elbow Treatment
- Thigh Fractures
- Thigh Muscle Strains
- Thumb Ulnar Collateral Ligament Injuries
- Total Ankle Replacement
- Total Hip Arthroplasty
- Total Hip Replacement - Anterior Approach
- Total Knee Replacement Surgery
- Trapezius Strain (Muscle Strain of The Upper Back)
- Traumatic Shoulder Instability
- Tricep Pain & Tendonitis
- Trigger Finger
- Turf Toe
- UCL (Ulnar Collateral Ligament) Injuries
- Ulnar Neuritis
- Valgus Extension Overload
- Vertebroplasty
- WALANT (Wide Awake Local Anesthesia No Tourniquet)
- Whiplash and Whiplash Associated Disorder (WAD)
- Wound Care
- Wrist Arthroscopy
- Wrist Fractures
- Wrist Tendonitis
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