Bulging Disc Chiropractor in Clarksville: What a Bulge Means and How We Treat It
A bulging disc is a spinal disc whose edge spreads past its normal boundary across a broad stretch of its rim. If you've been told you have one in your low back or neck, or your back, neck, leg or arm pain may be coming from one, Source Chiropractic in Clarksville starts with a first visit: a history and a hands-on exam, with X-rays when they're clinically appropriate, and you'll hear what we found before we recommend anything. Our chiropractors examine and treat the back and the neck. In the neck, the care we use for a bulging disc includes spinal decompression, a table-based therapy. In the low back, we may use decompression for disc-related problems and for leg pain or sciatica-type symptoms, and adjustments and rehab exercises join the plan when the exam calls for them.
This page answers the questions people bring us about bulging discs: what a bulge is and how it differs from a herniation, how often bulges turn up on scans of people with no pain, which symptoms need a doctor first, and what we do for one. Our disc injury page covers herniated, bulging and degenerative discs together. If you already know you'd like to be seen, book online or contact us.
When is a bulging disc an emergency?
Most bulging discs aren't emergencies, but some signs are. If you have any of these, go to an emergency room now. Please don't wait to see us first:
- Loss of bladder or bowel control, or new difficulty passing urine
- A change in the sensation of passing urine, such as not feeling the flow, or losing the sense of when the bowel is full
- Numbness in the saddle area: the inner thighs, buttocks, or around the genitals
- New sexual dysfunction, including new numbness in the genitals
- New or worsening weakness in both legs
- Severe back pain with fever, or an unexplained fever with new back pain. Either alone is enough
Changes in the bladder or bowel, including trouble passing urine or not feeling it, a change in feeling in the saddle area, or weakness in the legs can be signs of cauda equina syndrome, an emergency involving the nerves at the bottom of the spinal canal.
Pain running down a leg or an arm also needs urgent medical evaluation, according to the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS), when it comes with significant weakness in the leg or arm, a fever or a significant recent infection, a history of cancer that has spread, or a fall or injury that caused it. Weakness that keeps getting worse needs a prompt medical review. Call 911 for neck pain with a fever, a headache and a neck so stiff you can't touch your chin to your chest, which may be meningitis. Neck or arm pain with chest discomfort, shortness of breath, sweating or nausea can be signs of a heart attack. Call 911, even if you're not sure that's what it is. Severe neck pain, or a new and unexplained headache, especially with visual disturbance, unsteadiness or slurred speech, can indicate a tear in an artery in the neck, and it needs immediate medical investigation rather than manual treatment. New trouble walking or keeping your balance needs a prompt medical assessment.
Leg pain isn't always a disc. A blood clot in the leg is an immediate ER referral from our office too:
- A calf or leg that is swollen, warm, red or tender, especially in one leg only
- Sudden shortness of breath or chest pain, which can mean a clot has moved to the lungs. Call 911
If you mention any of these to us, we'll tell you to see the right doctor first.
What is a bulging disc?
Discs sit between the bones of your spine and help cushion movement. Each one has a tough outer ring, the annulus, and a softer center, the nucleus, as OrthoInfo from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons describes. In a bulge, the disc extends beyond its normal boundary across a broad part of its edge, generally more than a quarter of the way around. That definition comes from the lumbar disc nomenclature consensus, written jointly by the North American Spine Society and two radiology societies, and the consensus does not count a bulge as a herniation.
Age is one common route to a bulge. As discs age, they can dry out and crack, which can make them bulge, according to the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS).
What's the difference between a bulging disc and a herniated disc?
On a radiology report the two words mean different things, and the difference is how much of the disc's edge is involved:
- Bulge: a broad extension past the disc's boundary, generally over more than a quarter of its circumference. Not a herniation.
- Herniation: disc material displaced in a localized spot, over less than a quarter of the circumference. A protrusion, an extrusion and a sequestration are all kinds of herniation, and our disc injury page has the full table of what each one means.
Outside radiology reports, the words get mixed. The AANS patient page on herniated discs, for example, says a herniated disc is also called bulged, slipped or ruptured, and "slipped disc" is a common name for a herniation too. So if you've been told you have a bulging disc, the exact wording on your MRI report tells us more than the word you heard in passing. If your report says herniation instead, the plan starts the same way, with the exam, and can include spinal decompression, which we use for herniated discs in the neck and for disc-related problems in the low back; our disc injury page covers herniated discs in full. Our articles on herniated discs and slipped discs go further into those two terms.
How common are bulging discs in people with no back pain?
Very common, and more common with age. A systematic review of 33 studies covering 3,110 people without symptoms estimated that a disc bulge showed up on the scans of 30% of 20-year-olds and 84% of 80-year-olds who had no pain. The authors concluded that many of these findings are likely part of normal aging and not linked to pain.
That doesn't make a bulge meaningless. A second review led by the same author, of 3,097 adults aged 50 or younger, found that a disc bulge on MRI was more common in people with low back pain than in people without it, and the same was true of disc protrusions, extrusions and disc degeneration.
Put together, the two reviews explain why a report on its own can't settle much. The terms describe only what the disc looks like on the scan; they don't say which finding is behind your pain or what it needs. That comes from lining the report up with your symptoms and your exam, which is what we do at a first visit.
Can a bulging disc cause sciatica, arm pain or numbness?
It can. When a disc irritates a nerve, the symptoms can include pain, tingling or weakness. A bulge can also be part of what narrows the space around the nerves: along with bone spurs and thickened ligaments, bulging discs are among the age-related changes that can lead to spinal stenosis. Some people with that narrowing have no symptoms. Others have pain, numbness or weakness, and in the low back the symptoms can get worse with standing or walking.
Where the symptoms show up depends on which nerve is involved. The AANS describes the patterns of a disc pressing on a nerve this way:
- In the low back (lumbar): pain, burning, tingling or numbness that runs from the buttock into the leg and sometimes the foot, usually on one side and often described as sharp or like an electric shock. It may be worse with standing, walking or sitting.
- In the neck (cervical): dull or sharp pain in the neck or between the shoulder blades, pain that runs down the arm to the hand or fingers, or numbness or tingling in the shoulder or arm. It may change with certain positions or movements of the neck.
Those patterns aren't unique to discs. Our guides to sciatica, arm and leg pain and neck pain cover the other things that can cause them, and the exam is how we look for which one it is.
What does a chiropractor do for a bulging disc?
At our office, care for a bulging disc starts with the exam and is built around what it finds. Spinal decompression is our therapy for disc problems. In the neck, we may use it for bulging or herniated discs and for disc degeneration. In the lower back, we may use it for disc-related problems and for leg pain or sciatica-type symptoms. The plan may also include:
- Adjustments for spinal joints that aren't moving well. An adjustment is a controlled force applied to a specific joint, usually by hand.
- Rehab exercises for weakness or movement problems, so the work carries on between visits.
- Dry needling for tight, sore muscles.
- Class IV laser therapy for muscle and joint pain and stiffness.
A licensed massage therapist also works out of our office, and we'll put you in touch when soft-tissue work fits.
What is a decompression session like?
It's done on the DOC Decompression Table, and research calls it traction because a gentle pulling force is applied to the spine. There are no incisions and no injections. For the low back, you lie face up with two straps positioned around your waist and chest, and what Dr. Jeff Morrey describes as a gentle stretch is applied to your low back. A session lasts 25 minutes. He says patients watch a TV program during it or, usually, fall asleep.
Decompression is usually done 2 to 3 times a week, and we re-evaluate the plan every 6 visits, so you'll know how it's going. How many sessions you'd need is set after we've examined you and gone over what we found. Our spinal decompression page covers the table in more detail, and our article on the questions worth asking about spinal decompression has a short checklist to bring to your visit.
Do you treat a bulging disc in the neck?
Yes, when the exam fits. In the neck, we may use decompression for disc degeneration and for herniated or bulging discs. Dr. Cindy Morrey describes the setup this way: your head and neck are fitted into a cradle that supports a gentle decompressive pull to a targeted area of the neck. Our neck pain guide covers the other places neck pain can start, and the emergency signs above apply to the neck as well.
What happens at your first visit for a bulging disc?
Your first visit starts with a detailed history. You'll sit down with Dr. Jeff, Dr. Cindy or Dr. Ali and go over your health history, your symptoms, your concerns and your goals, such as sitting through a drive, sleeping through the night or getting back to lifting at work. We'll ask how long you've had the symptoms, exactly where they are and whether they travel into an arm or a leg, if you've had them before, what makes them better or worse, and whether they began with an activity or with no clear cause. We also go through your paperwork for anything that would make a treatment a bad idea.
Then comes the exam. It includes orthopedic tests, muscle strength, reflexes, sensation, palpation and the range of motion of your spine, and a straight-leg raise when pain travels into the leg. Full-spine X-rays are part of the visit when they're clinically appropriate.
X-rays show bones, and an MRI shows soft tissues such as the discs, ligaments and nerve roots, so a bulge is something an MRI shows rather than a plain X-ray. If you've had an MRI, bring the report and any images. We'll go through which exam findings line up with it and which don't, so the plan rests on what fits your symptoms. You'll hear what we found before we recommend anything, and the plan is built around your condition and your goals. Depending on both, it may include short-term care and longer-term options.
The new-patient chiropractic offer has its own terms.
Can a chiropractor push a bulging disc back into place?
A bulge isn't a piece of disc that has slid out of line. It's the edge of the disc spread past its boundary across a broad part of its rim, so there's no loose piece of spine waiting to be pushed back into place. What the care above is aimed at is what the exam finds: joints that aren't moving well, tight or sore muscles, weakness, and an irritated nerve.
People also ask whether a bulge goes away. In a review of people with lumbar disc findings who were treated without surgery and scanned more than once, the disc material had shrunk on the later scan in 13% of bulges, against 41% of protrusions, 70% of extrusions and 96% of sequestrations. That counts what the scan showed, not how people felt. For a herniated disc, the AANS says symptoms of sciatica or radiculopathy improve with time in about 9 out of 10 people. Care in the meantime is aimed at your pain and at what you can do, and the plan is re-evaluated as you go.
What does the research show for decompression and disc-related nerve pain?
The trials closest to how we use decompression studied disc-related leg or arm pain from an irritated nerve root:
- Leg pain that hadn't settled. A 2025 trial of 424 hospital patients (388 analysed) whose leg pain hadn't settled found that adding lumbar traction to medical treatment, which included epidural injections, meant more people had at least a 25% improvement in leg pain at one month: 62% against 51%. By three months the leg-pain gap (63% against 54%) was no longer statistically clear, and back pain improved in the same share of both groups at one month.
- Computerized decompression. A 2022 trial of 60 people with leg pain from the low back found that adding non-surgical decompression to physical therapy improved pain and disability more at four weeks than physical therapy alone.
- Arm symptoms from the neck. In a trial of 86 people, adding mechanical traction to exercise was followed by lower neck disability at six and twelve months than exercise alone, with the twelve-month difference the less certain of the two.
None of the three used a sham treatment, and all three studied herniated discs or nerve-root pain rather than bulges. A Cochrane review of traction for low back pain, with or without sciatica, found little or no difference, and England's NICE guideline recommends against offering traction for low back pain, with or without sciatica. Our spinal decompression page goes through the rest of the trials.
Is chiropractic care safe with a bulging disc?
A serious worry is that an adjustment could bring on cauda equina syndrome in someone with a low back disc or nerve-root problem. A 2026 US study compared two matched groups of 34,376 adults each with a lumbar disc herniation, spinal stenosis or nerve-root pain (radiculopathy), and did not find a higher risk of cauda equina syndrome after chiropractic spinal manipulation than after exercise led by a physical therapist, though the syndrome is rare enough that the estimate was imprecise.
Minor side effects often follow spinal manipulation: increased pain or discomfort, stiffness or headache, and most go away within 24 hours. Serious spinal or neurological problems have been reported, and neck manipulation has been linked to tears in neck arteries that can lead to a stroke. They're very rare, and there are no accurate estimates of how often they occur. With decompression, some people in traction studies had more pain, worsening nerve symptoms or later surgery, which is one reason we re-evaluate the plan every 6 visits.
We don't put you on the decompression table if you're pregnant, if you've had a spinal fusion or have hardware in your spine, if you have osteoporosis, or if you have a recent fracture, and that goes for the neck as well as the low back. Your history and paperwork are how we check for any other reason a treatment isn't right for you before we start.
What are the other treatment options for a bulging disc?
Physical therapy uses specific exercises to strengthen the lower back and abdominal muscles, and for chronic low back pain a Cochrane review found that exercise probably improves pain compared with no treatment, usual care or placebo. Anti-inflammatory medicines such as ibuprofen or naproxen can help relieve pain; questions about medicine belong with your doctor or a pharmacist. An epidural steroid injection may give short-term pain relief. For sciatica that hasn't improved with non-surgical treatment, when the scan matches the symptoms, NICE says to consider surgical decompression, an operation, not the table-based decompression we do. We'll go over the options that fit you at your exam, including when that means a referral.
Do you need an MRI for a bulging disc?
Not always. The AANS notes that the American College of Radiology doesn't recommend an MRI unless symptoms have been present for six weeks, while warning signs like the ones above call for urgent evaluation and imaging. At our office, X-rays are part of the first visit when they're clinically appropriate, and if your exam suggests an MRI would change the plan, we'll tell you.
Book a visit for a bulging disc in Clarksville
If you've been told you have a bulging disc, or your back, neck, leg or arm pain has you wondering about one, a first visit at our Clarksville office is where we work out what's going on and what care fits. If we are not able to help you with your problem or are unable to reduce your pain levels, we will make sure to give you a recommendation to another experienced provider. Book online or contact us, and our disc injury page covers herniated and degenerative discs as well.
Follow the evidence
Research, with context.
Selected published sources behind what we've written, each with what it found and what it can't tell us. We give you both halves because no paper can diagnose you or predict how your own care will go.
Systematic literature review of imaging features of spinal degeneration in asymptomatic populations
33 studies reporting imaging findings in 3,110 people without symptoms.
What it foundDegenerative findings were common in people without pain and became more frequent with age. A scan needs interpretation alongside symptoms and examination findings.
What it can't tell usThat doesn't make every disc finding harmless, or imaging never necessary. And a review like this can't identify what's causing one person's pain.
Publication details & citation
Brinjikji et al. Systematic literature review of imaging features of spinal degeneration in asymptomatic populations. American Journal of Neuroradiology. 2015. DOI: 10.3174/ajnr.A4173.
Read the publication recordMRI Findings of Disc Degeneration are More Prevalent in Adults with Low Back Pain than in Asymptomatic Controls: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
14 studies of 3,097 adults aged 50 or younger who had lumbar MRI: 1,193 without symptoms and 1,904 with low back pain, with or without leg symptoms.
What it foundDisc bulge (odds ratio 7.54, 95% CI 1.28 to 44.56), disc extrusion, disc protrusion, disc degeneration, Modic type 1 changes and spondylolysis were more common in people with back pain than in people without it. Annular fissures, any Modic change, central canal stenosis and spondylolisthesis were not associated with back pain.
What it can't tell usIt compares how often findings appear in two groups, so it shows association, not cause, and can't say which finding explains one person's pain. The bulge estimate has a very wide confidence interval, and it covers only adults 50 or younger.
Publication details & citation
Brinjikji et al. MRI Findings of Disc Degeneration are More Prevalent in Adults with Low Back Pain than in Asymptomatic Controls: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. American Journal of Neuroradiology. 2015. DOI: 10.3174/ajnr.A4498.
Read the publication recordThe probability of spontaneous regression of lumbar herniated disc: a systematic review
31 studies of people with a lumbar disc herniation treated without surgery and imaged at least twice, nine of which used the standard herniation classification and were pooled.
What it foundDisc material regressed on follow-up imaging in 96% of sequestrations, 70% of extrusions, 41% of protrusions and 13% of bulges, and resolved completely in 43% of sequestrations and 15% of extrusions. Extrusions and sequestrations were significantly more likely to regress than bulges or protrusions.
What it can't tell usIt is about what the scans showed, not about pain, and the pooled figures rest on nine studies searched through March 2014.
Publication details & citation
Chiu et al. The probability of spontaneous regression of lumbar herniated disc: a systematic review. Clinical Rehabilitation. 2015. DOI: 10.1177/0269215514540919.
Read the publication recordLumbar Tractions in Radicular Pain Caused by Herniated Disc: Randomised, Open-Label, Superiority, and Controlled Trial on 424 Participants
424 patients at a hospital rheumatology unit with leg pain from a herniated disc that had not settled with outpatient treatment; all received medical treatment including at least two epidural injections, and half also received lumbar traction.
What it foundAt one month, 62% of the traction group and 51% of the medical-treatment group had at least a 25% improvement in leg pain (388 of the 424 were analysed). At three months the leg-pain difference (63% against 54%) was not statistically significant, and back pain improved in the same share of both groups (51%) at one month.
What it can't tell usNobody was blinded, the main result was measured at one month, and the patients were hospital referrals already having injections, so it doesn't show what traction does on its own or for milder leg pain.
Publication details & citation
Bernhard et al. Lumbar Tractions in Radicular Pain Caused by Herniated Disc: Randomised, Open-Label, Superiority, and Controlled Trial on 424 Participants. Journal of Clinical Medicine. 2025. DOI: 10.3390/jcm14155192.
Read the publication recordEffects of non-surgical decompression therapy in addition to routine physical therapy on pain, range of motion, endurance, functional disability and quality of life versus routine physical therapy alone in patients with lumbar radiculopathy; a randomized controlled trial
60 people with lumbar radiculopathy, all given routine physical therapy, half also given non-surgical decompression on a computerized table, 12 sessions over four weeks.
What it foundThe decompression group improved more in pain, disability, back range of motion, back muscle endurance and two quality-of-life measures at four weeks.
What it can't tell usIt was one small trial with no sham treatment, and its outcomes were reported at the end of the four weeks of treatment, so it can't say how long any difference lasts.
Publication details & citation
Amjad et al. Effects of non-surgical decompression therapy in addition to routine physical therapy on pain, range of motion, endurance, functional disability and quality of life versus routine physical therapy alone in patients with lumbar radiculopathy; a randomized controlled trial. BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders. 2022. DOI: 10.1186/s12891-022-05196-x.
Read the publication recordExercise only, exercise with mechanical traction, or exercise with over-door traction for patients with cervical radiculopathy, with or without consideration of status on a previously described subgrouping rule: a randomized clinical trial
86 people with neck pain and signs of cervical radiculopathy (arm symptoms from a neck nerve root), given four weeks of exercise alone, exercise with mechanical traction, or exercise with over-door traction.
What it foundAdding mechanical traction to exercise was followed by lower neck disability at six and twelve months than exercise alone, and lower than over-door traction at six months.
What it can't tell usIt's a single trial of 86 people with arm symptoms from the neck, and the twelve-month difference was less certain than the six-month one. It doesn't speak for neck pain without arm symptoms, or for traction without exercise.
Publication details & citation
Fritz et al. Exercise only, exercise with mechanical traction, or exercise with over-door traction for patients with cervical radiculopathy, with or without consideration of status on a previously described subgrouping rule: a randomized clinical trial. Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy. 2014. DOI: 10.2519/jospt.2014.5065.
Read the publication recordChiropractic spinal manipulative therapy versus physical therapist-led exercise and the risk of cauda equina syndrome in adults with lumbar disc herniation, stenosis, or radiculopathy
34,376 matched pairs of US adults with lumbar disc herniation, spinal stenosis or radiculopathy in a health-records research network, 2005 to 2025, excluding people with existing cauda equina syndrome, incontinence, serious spinal pathology or recent spine surgery or injection, comparing spinal manipulation by a chiropractor with physical therapist-led exercise.
What it foundThe study did not identify an association between spinal manipulation and a higher risk of cauda equina syndrome (risk ratio 0.88, 95% CI 0.43 to 1.79). Bladder catheterization and fecal incontinence were less common in the manipulation group.
What it can't tell usA records study shows association, not cause, depends on how diagnoses were coded, and the confidence interval is wide. One author reports royalties from books on sciatica. A letter to the journal and the authors' reply were published in August 2026.
Publication details & citation
Trager et al. Chiropractic spinal manipulative therapy versus physical therapist-led exercise and the risk of cauda equina syndrome in adults with lumbar disc herniation, stenosis, or radiculopathy. PM&R. 2026. DOI: 10.1002/pmrj.70071.
Read the publication recordExercise therapy for chronic low back pain
249 trials of exercise therapy in adults with chronic nonspecific low-back pain.
What it foundExercise probably improves pain compared with no treatment, usual care or placebo. Average improvements in function were smaller.
What it can't tell usThe programs, and what they were compared with, varied. The review doesn't point to one best exercise for everyone, and it doesn't apply to a new fracture, an infection or a neurological problem that's getting worse.
Publication details & citation
Hayden et al. Exercise therapy for chronic low back pain. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2021. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD009790.pub2.
Read the publication record
Our editorial policy explains how to read these sources and what our clinical-review labels mean.