What is the?difference between?bulging disc?and a herniated disc?

Symptoms and size: A bulging disc is similar to your tire that has lost some air and the sidewall bulges. It may cause no symptoms but if it bulges more and is large even to pinch a nerve we use the term herniated disc. It is confusing for patients and for doctors who read the reports. The patients' history and clinical exam must be correlated with the x-rays.

Synonyms: The terms bulging disk, slipped disk, herniated disk are roughly the same idea that they disc has moved out of place where it should be and possibly compressing nerve or spinal cord. Typically though herniated disk signifies a slight increase in severity of pathology over a bulging disc. It gets a little more specific if terms like disc protrusion and disc extrusion come into the mix.