What is the best relief for sciatic nerve pain?

Several : Low back, buttock and "shooting" leg pain are all symptoms of a pinched nerve. It sounds like you may have that problem. If the pain is severe and limiting your activity still, the best non-narcotic medications that I have found to work for my patients are antiinflammatories such as Ibuprofen or Naproxen which are over-the-counter medications. Other non-narcotic medications include tramadol (ultram) which requires a prescription and nerve-pain medications such as gabapentin. These are all to be taken for temporary pain relief. This type of pain typically resolves with time. Ask your primary physician about these if the pain is still limiting you. If it is still going on for more than a month an MRI may be helpful to help sort out what is going on and there could be other potential treatments outside of surgery that could benefit you.

See nelow: Physical therapy, epidural steroid injection and if all else fails, microdoscectomy.

Various: Some benefit from physical therapy, osteopathic manipulations, epidural steroid injections, exercises and stretching, especially mckenzie exercises, but also acupuncture and a variety of analgesic medications.

Time plus: Time is the best healer but activity restriction, guided exercise, medication especially a steroid pack, and even epidural steroid injections may help. Cessation of smoking, weight reduction and regular exercise will help prevent a recurrence which has a rate of 5% if due to a disc herniation.

Pinched Nerve: I would suggest seeing a pain/spine specialist to evaluate you further to evaluate what level and what can be done to treat you. There are interventional treatments besides medications and surgeries that might reduce or eliminate the pain altogether.