Your Guide to Overcoming Facet Joint Arthritis

If you are experiencing facet joint arthritis, you are not alone. This condition commonly affects the small joints that link your vertebrae and allow your spine to twist and bend. When these joints become inflamed, daily activities like bending forward, rotating your torso, or simply getting out of bed can become uncomfortable or even painful. Yet, by understanding how facet joint arthritis develops and learning about proven treatments, you can take meaningful steps toward pain relief and better mobility.

Understanding Facet Joint Arthritis

Facet joint arthritis, also called facet arthropathy or facet arthrosis, refers to the gradual wearing away of cartilage in the facet joints of the spine. Each vertebra in your spine connects to its neighbor through two facet joints—one on each side—helping guide movement and provide stability. Over time, normal wear on these joints can lead to inflammation, bone spur growth, and swelling, resulting in pain and stiffness.

Why This Condition Develops

• Age and Natural Wear: With advancing age—and sometimes in younger adults with a predisposition—the protective cartilage that cushions your facet joints thins out. This allows the bones to rub together and become irritated.
• Trauma or Injury: Falls, strains, or a spinal fracture can damage the facet joints, speeding up arthritic changes.
• Degenerative Disc Disease: When intervertebral discs lose height, they can shift more weight onto the facet joints, intensifying wear and tear.
• Family History: Some individuals are genetically predisposed to cartilage deterioration, making them more vulnerable to facet joint issues.
• Other Spine Conditions: Co-existing spine conditions, such as spondylosis or radiculopathy, can worsen the pain you feel in your facet joints.

According to Mayo Clinic Sports Medicine, risk factors like poor posture, history of trauma, and degenerative disc disease may escalate your chances of developing facet arthritis (Mayo Clinic).

Key Symptoms and Diagnosis

Facet joint arthritis commonly stems from mild to severe joint inflammation. You may feel stiffness or a dull ache that intensifies after prolonged sitting, standing, or when bending backward. In the lumbar spine, discomfort may radiate to your buttocks or thighs. In the cervical spine, pain can spread to the back of your head or shoulders.

Identifying the Signs

• Morning Stiffness: Pain or stiffness in your lower back or neck that is most pronounced upon waking up.  
• Activity-Related Pain: Twisting, bending backward, and lifting can aggravate facet joint pain, while bending forward sometimes offers relief (UCHealth).  
• Localized Tenderness: You might notice tender spots along your spine where the joints are inflamed.  
• Radiating Discomfort: If a nearby nerve is affected, you may feel sensations traveling into your limbs.

Diagnostic Methods

After a physical exam and a discussion about your medical history, your healthcare provider may use:

1. Imaging Studies: X-rays, CT scans, or MRIs to evaluate potential cartilage damage or bone spur growth.  
2. Diagnostic Injections: A facet joint block using anesthetic and cortisone. If your pain improves significantly, it helps confirm that the targeted joint is the pain source (Spine-Health).

When diagnosing facet joint disorders, your physician may also check for facet joint syndrome or facet degeneration, which share many similarities with facet joint arthritis.

Non-Surgical Treatment Options

Nonsurgical treatments for facet joint arthritis often offer substantial relief. Typically, your doctor will start with conservative measures, adding or adjusting therapies based on your results.

At-Home Therapies

If you have mild to moderate pain, simple at-home treatments can be quite effective:

• Heat and Cold Therapy: Applying a warm compress can enhance blood flow, reduce stiffness, and ease muscle spasms. Alternately, cold packs can help reduce inflammation, particularly after a flare-up (Spine-Health).  
• Gentle Stretching and Low-Impact Aerobic Exercise: Regular activities like walking or swimming keep your spine mobile without overburdening your joints. Light stretching for the back and neck helps maintain flexibility.  
• Proper Posture: Be conscious of how you stand and sit. Avoid slouching—even when driving or working at a desk—to minimize strain on your spine.

You may also want to be cautious about facet joint pain exercises to avoid if they place too much stress on your lower back or neck.

Medications

Many individuals find relief through over-the-counter nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). Topical pain relievers (creams or patches) can also target mild discomfort in localized areas. In some cases, your doctor might recommend stronger prescriptions, including muscle relaxants, to ease tension around the facet joints.

When using medications:

• Check for Side Effects: Pay attention to stomach irritation or other unpleasant symptoms.  
• Follow Directions: Always observe dosage guidelines and consult a physician if you need extended use or higher doses.

Physical Therapy

Physical therapy is a mainstay for strengthening muscles around your spine and improving your range of motion. A therapist may employ:

• Manual Therapy: Targeted pressure and mobilization of joints.  
• Low-Impact Aerobic Exercise: Activities like stationary biking or aquatic therapy that elevate your heart rate without adding pressure to the spine.  
• Strengthening and Stretching Regimens: Tailored exercise routines that safeguard your back while building core stability.

With consistent sessions, this approach helps stabilize the lower back and promotes healing.

Injection Therapy

If your pain does not respond to basic therapies, injection therapy can bring more targeted relief:

• Steroid Injections: A mix of numbing agents and steroids is delivered directly into or around your facet joint(s).  
• Medial Branch Blocks: An anesthetic injection around the nerves linked to the facet joint, confirming whether it is the main pain source.  
• Ultrasound guided facet injection: These injections rely on imaging technology for accurate needle placement.

Injections can decrease pain and inflammation for weeks or months, but they also carry slight risks like infection or bleeding (Spine-Health).

Additional Treatment Approaches

Sometimes, conservative therapies might not yield adequate, long-term relief. In these cases, advanced procedures may offer a better solution.

Radiofrequency Ablation

Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) applies heat to small nerve fibers to disrupt pain signals. This treatment typically offers relief lasting nine months to more than two years, especially when you have recurrent and debilitating facet joint pain (UCHealth). By rendering the nerve temporarily unable to send signals, RFA can significantly reduce chronic pain.

Surgical Options

Although most people respond to nonsurgical methods, some might need more definite intervention if their facet joints are severely degenerated or if other structural issues like lumbar spondylosis are present. Surgical paths include:

• Spinal Fusion: Fusing two vertebrae to limit motion and reduce pain if instability is causing your discomfort.  
• Minimally Invasive Procedures: Some minimally invasive spine procedures remove portions of bone overgrowth or address specific nerve compression.  
• Facetectomy: Removal or reshaping of part of the facet joint to free pinched nerves.

Surgery is often reserved for advanced cases, such as when facet joint regeneration efforts and other conservative therapies have not provided lasting relief.

Practical Tips for Managing Pain Daily

Beyond formal treatments, your everyday choices can ease or aggravate facet joint arthritis symptoms. By making the right lifestyle adjustments, you set a stronger foundation for overall spine health.

• Practice a Balanced Routine: Incorporate walking, gentle yoga, or swimming into your weekly schedule. Even 15 minutes a day can improve blood flow and reduce stiffness.  
• Maintain a Healthy Weight: Shedding extra pounds relieves pressure on your facet joints, particularly in the lumbar region.  
• Monitor Your Posture: Whether you are sitting at a desk or lifting groceries, align your shoulders over your hips and avoid slouching whenever possible.  
• Explore Stress-Relief Methods: Tense muscles contribute to chronic back pain. Techniques like deep breathing, meditation, or light massage can help you stay relaxed.  
• Vary Your Position: If you spend a long time seated, get up and stretch your back at least once an hour. Avoid remaining in one position for extended periods.

You might also hear about specific syndromes such as cervical facet syndrome if the pain is primarily in your neck or lumbar facet syndrome when your lower back is most affected. Each condition shares many of the same management techniques.

Moving Forward with Confidence

Dealing with facet joint arthritis can feel overwhelming at times, but information and the right care plan empower you to take control of your body and your pain management strategy. By combining exercises that reinforce your spine, applying heat and cold as needed, and working with medical professionals on safe treatments—whether that includes injection therapy or radiofrequency ablation—you can discover meaningful relief.

If nonsurgical steps do not alleviate your discomfort, advanced care options remain viable. Consult with a spine specialist to discuss whether radiofrequency ablation, prolotherapy, or surgical procedures best suit your long-term goals. You can also learn more about the different stages of facet arthropathy as part of understanding how your condition may progress.

Seek RELIEF®

RELIEF® is an evidence-backed, minimally invasive treatment designed to target dysfunctional fascia and irritated soft tissues surrounding the spinal structures—especially the facet joint capsules that help stabilize and guide spinal movement.¹ When these fascial layers become inflamed or adhered from degenerative arthritis, repetitive strain, or injury, they can restrict spinal motion and increase mechanical pressure on the facet joints and nearby nerves; contributing to chronic back or neck pain.^2,3 

The RELIEF® treatment combines a hydrodissection technique to mechanically disrupt scar tissue and adhesions, while delivering amnion-based biologics solution that can decrease inflammation and support regenerative tissue healing.⁷ This may help restore healthy tissue mobility around the facet joints, and reduces mechanical irritation in the spinal motion segment—without steroids, surgery, anesthesia, or prolonged downtime^.4,5,6

If you’re in the Miami area and experiencing facet joint pain, spinal arthritis, or other spine-related mobility limitations, contact us today to learn how RELIEF® may help restore comfort, spinal motion, and overall functional recovery.