Neck pain is widespread, and most people will experience it at some point in their lifetime. Dysfunction around your neck doesn't only cause neck pain- but can cause headaches, feelings of upper back and neck tension and tightness, pain in your TMJ, and more.
Different factors can include desk jobs, manual labor, sports and sports collisions, auto accidents, food allergens, prolonged cell phone use, and more.
Upper crossed syndrome usually occurs when there is overactivity of pectoral (chest) and cervical extensors (back of neck) musculature, resulting in weakened muscles in the middle of your back. Upper crossed syndrome presents with rounded shoulders and tight neck muscles, especially at the base of your skull. The patient will often feel like their upper back muscles are incredibly tight.
Different risk factors can include:
Headaches are a widespread dysfunction but are not normal. At Chiropractic Pain Solutions, we think of headaches as a 'check engine light' because your body often tells you that change is needed. There are many different types and causes of headaches, which is why a proper diagnosis is essential. The most common types are tension headaches, cervicogenic headaches, and migraines.
Different causes of headaches include:
Our thorough history and examination will help uncover the cause of your headaches. Headaches most commonly associated with neck pain and tightness are known as cervicogenic headaches. Restoring proper joint motion with chiropractic adjustments, relaxing the musculature with myofascial, and activating the deep neck flexors can solve cervicogenic headaches.
A neck sprain or strain is a common injury in your cervical spine. Used interchangeably, a sprain occurs when there is damage to a ligament or joint. In comparison, a strain is due to injury to the musculature. These can happen due to a direct injury or from prolonged stress.
Different causes can include:
After the examination, treatment will include gentle adjustments, soft-tissue therapy, and proper rehabilitation to stabilize and strengthen the neck musculature.
Intervertebral discs in our spine have strong outer fibers called the annulus fibrosis with an inner "jelly" like material called the nucleus pulposus.
Due to trauma, repetitive motion, improper heavy lifting, genetics, and other risk factors, the annulus fibrosis can break down, letting the jelly-like nucleus pulposus create a bulge or breakthrough, causing disc herniation.
Herniations can cause inflammation and irritation around the nerve resulting in severe pain. This pain can travel to your shoulder blade or down your arm. The pain in your arm can be sharp, electrical, or shooting. There can also be sensory changes that include paresthesia, numbness, tingling, and loss of sensation.
Different causes of cervical disc pain/radiculopathy include:
In most cases, you can avoid surgery or injections. Our first goal in the office is to reduce the pain from your arm or shoulder blade and get it to "centralize" to your spine. We often do that by finding a pain-free repetitive motion of your spine that you can do at home to speed up the recovery process. After that, we will work on restoring proper joint movement and muscle activation to prevent this from occurring again and progressing.
Having "TMJ" or TMD or temporomandibular dysfunction, jaw pain is a prevalent condition. Neck pain can start because of over-clenching or tightness of the TMJ musculature.
How you might know if your TMJ is at fault for your neck pain or headaches:
Clenching your jaw is like holding a bicep curl for the entire day. Could you imagine how sore your bicep would be? The same goes for the muscles around your skull that close your jaw.
