Neck Pain
What causes neck pain?
Poor Posture
Most of the time neck pain comes from poor posture in the form of forward head carriage, placing extra stress on your ligaments, muscles and tendons. This extra stress, if sustained leads to muscle and joint fatigue and pain.
There are a lot of everyday activities that lead to this, such as;
- Working on your computer
- Excessive smartphone use
- Reading with poor posture
- Hunching over a desk at work
- Dealing with small children
Although these are the most common causes, sometimes neck pain can come from less obvious past events.
These can include some of the following:
Stressful Times
Periods of stress at home or work are not unusual in most people’s lives. Yet, short or long periods of stress can cause tension in the muscles of the neck and shoulders and changes in posture, that can lead to neck pain.
Whiplash from Automobile Accident
Acute neck pain following a car accident, motorbike or bicycle fall can place direct damage to neck joints and surrounding soft tissue structures. If there is a whiplash-type injury with the accident, and the injury has not been addressed, then this can lead to more chronic issues in the future.
Poor Sleep Position
When neck pain is worse in the morning, then it can be due to poor pillow choice, awkward sleep posture or a bad bed. Most of the time it is a combination of all three.
Sporting Injury
Neck injuries can occur after falls, knocks and bumps during sporting activities or physical hobbies. Repetitive movements during some sports, such as golf can cause stress to the neck and cause imbalance and pain.
Regardless of what causes your neck pain, chiropractic care is there to help.
What are the symptoms of neck pain?
You will experience a range of feelings in your neck, from mild to severe, in either case, these are some of the most common issues we come across;
- Pain just under the skull
- Stiffness and restriction in movement
- Interrupted sleep
- Pain that is on and off
- Local pain or general
- Easily aggravated by activities
- Sharp, stabbing sensations
- Shoulder tightness and pain
Other Neck Symptoms can be:
- Headaches
- Tingling/numbness down the arm, forearm or hand and fingers
- Balance or coordination issues
- Wry neck, where the head is tilted one way and pain is severe
Sound like you?
These symptoms of neck pain often make you feel uncomfortable. When they occur - visiting your chiropractor will not only take the discomfort away but to also reduce future aggravations.
When to see a chiropractor?
If you feel uncomfortable or your neck pain persists, that is usually a sign that you should take action and see your chiropractor.
While sometimes will have minimal discomfort, occasionally it will be more severe and you may even start to notice a pattern with your neck pain. All these should act as triggers for you to contact your chiropractor and get treatment to ease the pain, so you can comfortably get on with your life.
Putting up with a stiff and painful neck has an impact on how you move, feel and relate to others during your day. This does not need to be the case.
Here are some tips to when seeing a chiropractor is a good idea:
- Severe pain that does not ease after a day or two
- Pain that follows an accident, whether from sport or a motor vehicle
- Numbness and tingling in the arm, hand and fingers
- Complete loss of neck movement
- Pain on waking that does not ease
How to diagnose it?
At Errol Street Chiropractic we start our assessment by finding out as much as we can about your medical history. We look at what postures you spend your day in, what sleep posture you assume and what injuries you’ve suffered.
We then go through a thorough neurological, orthopaedic, and spinal functional examination. Reflexes, ranges of spinal movement and a Posture Screen® postural photo are ways of finding out more information to help us piece together your past and present.
If, by the end of the testing, we find that your problem has a neck joint component and that chiropractic care may help, then x-rays can be organised or treatment may begin. X-rays will help to diagnose a problem such as spinal arthritis (degeneration or decay) and sometimes if a disc problem is suspected, you may be referred out for a MRI or CT scan.
Once we have gathered all the information about your past and current state, we provide you with a diagnosis and recommendation of care. Recommendations will include how we can help, what treatment will look like, length of treatment and what exercises or home advice to undertake to assist in your recovery.
How can chiropractic help neck pain?
After a diagnosis has been made then our job is to reduce your neck pain and discomfort. We work on the following:
- Chiropractic adjustments to the restricted joints of the spine. The low force, gentle adjustments help to improve the movement in the joints. We use the Activator for those people who are not suited to manual therapy.
- When indicated we also utilise an advanced chiropractic technique called Chiropractic BioPhysics (CBP). This is designed to help restore the spine closer to normal alignment. CBP is the most researched-based spinal corrective care known and is results-driven. Mirror image adjustments ®, in house Denneroll Traction and home traction are included in this treatment.
- Specially chosen exercises called mirror image® exercises, help with spinal alignment. These are custom neuromuscular exercises unique for each patient. Their purpose is helping retrain muscles around faulty curves.
- Home and work posture advice, including sleep posture advice, will help to reduce the physical stress load on the neck. This helps with the treatment process, but also with getting you into better postural habits for long term health benefits.
Why Choose Errol St Chiro For Your Treatment?
Our chiropractors understand that your health is your biggest asset. We enjoy helping people get back to doing the things they love and doing it with ease of movement, and with no discomfort.
Our advanced spinal rehabilitation techniques allows us to find the cause of your problem and correct the spine - so results are long lasting. Allowing you to do what you love doing for as long as wish.
Call our chiro practice on 9329 1118 to book in your initial assessment.
