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Neck Pain Chiropractic Doctors
Neck pain is a very common complaint with 20% to 70% of adults experiencing neck pain that affects their daily routine throughout their lifetime.
Why Does Neck Pain and Head Movement Affect my Health?
Not only does it become an annoyance and limits your range of movement, but there can be other ways neck pain affects your health. When neck pain occurs, the soft tissues surrounding it become affected; these include muscles, tendons, and ligaments. All these soft tissues enable your neck to move properly and when they are damaged or become irritated, they will begin to limit the movement.
Neck pain can be caused by a compressed nerve due to an upper cervical misalignment – where at least one of your top two bones of the spine located at the base of the skull are not in proper placement. When one of these bones fall out of alignment, it compresses against the brain stem and nerves causing an interference with the brain to body communication and pain.
Because of improper brain to body communication due to a compressed brain stem, the body will not be able to heal or repair itself as needed and can misinterpret signals. This can cause an inability to fight properly against diseases or bring about the onset of conditions. Neck pain is often a warning that these bones need to be fixed and realigned.
What is the Most Common Cervical Neck Pain Symptom?
The most common neck pain symptom would be having a stiff neck and general soreness. Below are some other symptoms commonly seen in those who have neck pain:
- Stiff Neck - As you turn the head from side to side, you may experience soreness or find the neck difficult to move.
- Radicular Pain - This includes pain that radiates along a nerve from the neck throughout the shoulder and the arm. Pain associated with this could give off a burning or a searing sensation.
- Sharp Pain - Sharp pain could be localized to one spot. This sharp pain may feel like a stab or a sting and is usually known to occur in the lower region of the neck.
- Headaches - Irritation in the neck can cause headaches to appear as your muscles and nerves connected to the head can become affected.
- Cervical Radiculopathy - Neurological deficits including problems with strength, reflexes, or sensations may be noticeable within the arm because of the compression of nerve roots.
- Difficulty Gripping or Lifting Objects - When weakness or numbness appears in the arm or fingers, one may have difficulty gripping and lifting.
- General Soreness - This soreness is not sharp and is instead achy or tender. Typically, this is felt in a larger area or region of the neck and causes discomfort.
Keep in mind, it is possible to have more than one symptom at a time. As neck pain progresses over time, it may lead to sleeping difficulties. These symptoms can also interfere with daily activities such as brushing teeth, brushing hair, and dressing where you may feel discomfort or soreness. Other activities that require you to move your head about, such as driving, may feel uncomfortable as well.
Difference Between Neck Pain and Neck Discomfort
Neck discomfort, unlike neck pain, could be from sitting in an uncomfortable position to where you need to stretch for it to go away, massage, or rest. Neck pain is a bit more complicated. Neck pain can be caused by muscle strains, worn joints, nerve compression, injuries, or disease. Neck discomfort is also referred to as having an achy feeling whereas neck pain is more sudden, stronger, and much harder to ignore.
Neck discomfort will not affect your daily activities like neck pain will. Neck pain is noticeable and can worsen as you continue while discomfort is “in the background”, increasing and decreasing over time. Descriptions of neck pain include a stabbing, stinging, and shooting sensation while discomfort is described as aching, annoying, irritating, and lingering.
Can Neck Pain Disorder be Treated with a Neck Adjustment?
If neck pain occurs, a neck adjustment can help target it. As mentioned above, neck pain often warns us an upper cervical misalignment could be present. There is a certain neck adjustment that is recommended to treat neck pain and exceeds the outcomes of medication and surgery.
Can Chiropractic Offer Neck Pain Treatment?
There are chiropractors who specialize in a certain technique for neck adjustments. General chiropractic is not recommended as the neck area should be handled by a chiropractor who focuses on the very precise, gentle movements needed to realign the neck.
What is the Best Chiropractic Technique for Neck Pain?
The best chiropractic technique for neck pain would be an upper cervical chiropractic adjustment. Upper cervical chiropractic adjustments focus on the top two bones of the spine, the neck area. These are very accurate adjustments that use gentle movements to realign your upper cervical area.
General chiropractic techniques can be a little rough and not as accurate. In additional, general chiropractic does not specialize in the neck area, but upper cervical chiropractic solely focuses on this area.
Many patients who have tried medication or have gone through surgery after experiencing severe neck pain have still seen a great improvement after an upper cervical adjustment. This is because an upper cervical adjustment targets what could be causing your neck pain instead of focusing on alleviating the symptoms as medication and surgery does.
When an adjustment is made, tension is taken off the brain stem and the surrounding soft tissue – ridding you of the neck pain. Since tension is taken off the brain stem, the brain to body communication is restored and the body can begin its repairing and healing process.
The goal of an upper cervical chiropractor is to make adjustments only when they are needed, until the body heals itself enough to hold the adjustment in place on its own.
Chiropractic Neck Pain Doctor Near Me
If you are experiencing neck pain or are noticing beginning signs of it, an upper cervical specialist can help you. During a chiropractic exam, we will be able to pinpoint any upper cervical misalignments and see how they are affecting your neck area and the rest of your body as it compresses the nerves.
Upper cervical adjustments are completely safe, gentle, and great for any age. Unlike medication and surgery that targets symptoms, upper cervical adjustments can help target the cause of your neck pain because of the stress taken off your neck area. An upper cervical adjustment also allows the body to regain its healing and repairing abilities thanks to the restoration of a properly functioning brain stem.
Upper cervical adjustments are an effective neck pain treatment, pinpoint the underlying cause of your neck pain, and are a great alternative, all-natural option opposed to medication. If you are tired of living with neck pain, we would love to help.
We would like to invite you to accept our invitation for a free 15 minute phone consultation to speak with one of our upper cervical chiropractic doctors where you can ask any questions you may have and decide if an exam or care might be right for you.
If you are interested, you can call our office at (843) 225-5855.
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