The difference between a bulging disc and a herniated disc is mainly in the symptomatology. A herniated disc usually refers to the rupture of the disc fibers due to traumatic impact or disease, which causes the spinal cord to protrude from the rupture into the back of the spinal canal or the spinal canal, thus compressing the dural sac and the nerve root and leading to a series of symptoms. After herniated disc, the patient may show low back pain, numbness of lower limbs, radiating pain in lower limbs, and scoliosis. Through CT examination, it can be found that the disc proliferation is obvious and the nucleus pulposus is squeezing the dural sac seriously. Bulging disc is the manifestation when the nucleus pulposus is mildly pressurized against the dural sac, which belongs to the milder type of herniated disc. Patients usually have mild back pain or no obvious symptoms, and usually do not have lower extremity symptoms, which do not require special treatment under normal circumstances. In summary, the difference between a bulging disc and a herniated disc is that a herniated disc is more serious than a bulging disc, and a bulging disc is a mild manifestation of a herniated disc.