Back condition
Facet joints are the spine's knuckles — the paired small joints behind each disc that guide every bend and twist. Being true joints, they wear like knees do: facet joint arthritis is one of the most common causes of chronic back pain from midlife on, classically worse on arching and standing, easier sitting. Its saving grace? It's the one back pain with a truly precise diagnosis — and a treatment to match.
Worn joints grumble in a familiar way — these signs say something more is going on. Tap any that apply:
This pattern is bigger than worn facet joints — have it assessed promptly. These signs point to nerve involvement, fracture or causes that need ruling out properly. Any bladder or bowel change is an emergency today.
Good news — this fits the classic facet pattern. Classic also means diagnosable: facet pain can be confirmed to the exact joint, and treated with matching precision. If arching, standing and twisting have been writing the rules of your day, an assessment can rewrite them.
Every spinal segment is a three-legged stool: the disc in front, two facet joints behind. Anything that loads the back legs harder wears them sooner:
And the honest footnote once more: worn facet joints show up on scans of many people with no pain — which is exactly why the diagnosis is made by precisely testing the joint, not by admiring the picture.
Play to the joints' preferences. Break up prolonged standing — a foot on a low rail helps — and sit when the joints ask; unlike disc pain, sitting is your friend here. Heat suits the stiffness, gentle knees-to-chest and rotation stretches give the joints movement without load, and simple pain relief from your pharmacist covers the worst days. Flares usually settle in days; the checker above tells you when a flare isn't behaving like one.
Facet pain writes in flares that can blur into a chronic story — tap where you are:
Give it the flare treatment. Posture variety, heat, gentle flexion stretches and a few sensible days — most facet flares settle quickly. Note the trigger; repeated flares from the same movements are a pattern worth bringing to us.
Past the flare window — time to confirm the source. Six weeks of arch-and-stand pain deserves examination and, where the pattern fits, precise diagnostic blocks. Confirming the joint now sets up every later treatment to actually work.
Chronic facet pain is the kind we can do the most about. Confirmed joints respond to radiofrequency ablation with relief lasting many months — often longer — and it's repeatable. Years of grumbling doesn't mean years more of it.
Treatment climbs a precise ladder — and precision is the point:
Whatever the recommendation, our specialist walks you through the options, the risks and the expected recovery before anything is decided.
Tap a card to reveal the truth:
Give the joints variety and support: alternate sitting and standing before either complains, keep the core and glutes strong so the small joints aren't doing the big joints' work, keep the hips mobile so twisting happens where it should, mind sustained arching — overhead work, high shelves, certain yoga poses — and keep your weight in a healthy range. Worn knuckles still shake hands; worn facets, managed well, still carry full days.
They're near-opposites in behaviour. Facet pain typically worsens when you arch backwards, stand long or twist, and eases when you sit or lean forward; disc pain tends to hate sitting and bending. Facet pain also stays local or refers to the buttock and thigh — it rarely shoots below the knee the way sciatica does. The examination patterns are usually the first big clue.
This is the rare back condition with a definitive test. Under image guidance, the tiny nerves serving a suspect joint are numbed — a medial branch block. If the pain switches off, the diagnosis is confirmed at that exact level; if it doesn't, we've saved you from treating the wrong target. Scans alone can't do this, because worn facet joints appear in plenty of pain-free people.
Once blocks confirm which joints hurt, radiofrequency ablation uses precisely placed heat to quieten the small nerves carrying that pain signal — a needle procedure, not open surgery. Relief typically lasts many months and often beyond a year; the nerves can regrow, and the procedure can be repeated. It's performed here by our internationally certified interventional pain specialist.
The wear itself doesn't reverse — like arthritis in a knee — but the pain is very controllable. Between strengthening, posture strategy, targeted injections and radiofrequency ablation, most people get their activities back and keep them. Managed well, worn facet joints and a full life get along fine.
Rarely. Facet pain on its own is almost never a surgical problem — the ladder of physiotherapy, blocks and radiofrequency ablation handles most of it. Surgery enters the conversation only when the arthritis is part of something bigger, such as a slipped vertebra or significant nerve compression.
Same-day appointments are usually available. Call or book online — our team will take it from there.
