Neck Pain

Acute, Chronic & General Neck Pain

Conditions of the neck can be very painful; the acute stage occurs within the first 6 weeks of onset. Acute neck pain can be very sharp or may present as a dull ache, the pain may come and go intermittently or might occur constantly.

Chronic conditions are those that have been ongoing for a substantial length of time from a period of a few months to sometimes years. Some people may have lived with their neck pain for a long time before it gets so bad that they have to seek some help for it, sometimes the painful periods come on every few months and they can have relatively pain free periods between episodes, in others it can gradually build up and increase in intensity over a long time.

General neck pain is more sporadic and diffuse is just as difficult to live with; these can be acute or chronic depending on the condition. Some arthritis conditions (for example) can give joint pain and stiffness for many years and can be eased by certain treatments to the joints in the neck and the muscle tissue surrounding it. The first step is to identify what the cause may be and then you have a much better chance of finding a successful treatment.

 

Arm & Neck Pain

Quite commonly arm and neck pain can present together, it may also be accompanied by numbness and/or pins and needles.

The pain could also be unrelated i.e. that you have a separate neck and arm disorder. The fundamental issue is to properly diagnose what is causing the pain and whether the two are linked or not, Chiropractors have a variety of specific diagnostic tests that meet this criteria and our treatment is designed to take the tension off the joints, muscles and other structures that may be causing the problem.

 

Headaches from the Neck

Most headaches do not come from the neck and have a different source but there is a very specific type of headache that is called a Cervicogenic headache that originates from the cervical spine (i.e. the neck).

It usually starts in the back of the head and tends to radiate up and around the head and can sometimes travel to the front of the head and the eye, it can be associated with nausea, vomiting, photophobia (aversion to light) and/or phonophobia (aversion to sound). The cause is generally due to dysfunction and pain of the joints and muscles in the neck and can also involve the occipital nerve.