Neck Pain/Cervical Pain, what is it?

Neck Pain/Cervical Pain, what is it? What causes it?

The neck is the seven vertebrae from just below the skull down to the shoulders. This is the Cervical Spine. Your pain can be caused by mechanical joint dysfunctions, disc degeneration, whiplash, herniated discs, tension, trauma, pinched nerves, muscle spasms and more.

Beside Pain, here are some other symptoms.

Reduced range of motion (ROM) is often a problem to drivers, sports enthusiast, and people used to having a good range of motion. Most often the symptoms are dull and aching.

After prolonged difficulty the ROM is restricted and motion can become sharp when attempting to force the motion. Many people find that massage helps the stiffness and tight muscles. If the pain continues the pain can become tingling, numbness, fullness, weakness, difficulty swallowing, pulsations near the source of pain. If the nerves are pinched, the, muscles, glands and organs related to the pinched nerves can begin to malfunction and become diseased. For example: This is a very abbreviated list of tissues affected.

What other structures might be affected?

http://www.primalpictures.com/productimagegallery.aspx?productid=8&page=1

The top middle picture is the cervical spine. The brain would be at the top within the skull, within the bones of the neck on the right of the picture and in the center near the top where three muscles come together, you can see an artery going through the transverses of the vertebrae. The muscles shown are but a few of the muscles of the cervical spine. There are nerves, arteries, veins, lymphatic vessels and glands, each so dense that if everything else was removed you could still see that someones neck was before you. Plus organs like the thyroid gland, the parathyroid gland, esophagus, larynx, and trachea. Diseases, infections, and dysfunctions of these structures can also lead to your pain in the neck.

How is the cause of neck pain diagnosed?

This is why you should fully fill out your Confidential Health History Forms. Please tell when and how your pain started. How long you have had it. Draw the location, intensity, how long it lasts, does it radiate up, down, inward or to the sides? What actions exacerbate, or relieve some of your symptoms? Does it help to sit, lie down, walk, exercise, sleep? What have you done or taken to try to get help? What other doctors have you seen to get help? As a Chiropractor I use the Subluxation Station which includes, Thermal Scanning, Surface Electromyography, computerized Range of Motion testing, and Heart Rate Variability Testing. I also use Active and Passive Functional Tests, Reflexes, and hands on palpation. X-rays are most often required. Occasionally I order MRI, CT Scans or Blood, hair, Urine, or saliva testing. If these do not give me a definitive diagnosis, I may have to refer you to someone else that can do more intensive testing.

How is Neck Pain Treated by a Chiropractor?

Treatment by a Doctor of Chiropractic is most often by Spinal Adjusting. This can be by hand, by mechanical instruments, and I use a computerized adjusting instrument called the Pro-Adjuster. We can use Muscle Stimulation, Ultrasound, Muscle Stripping, deep massage, Decompression Traction, taping and Nutritional Counseling.I will give you a home treatment program, this may include, exercise, heat/cold, cervical traction, and lifestyle changes. So what is your choice? Will you choose the safest way, proven by over 115 years of research and clinical excellence, the least changed method and largest drugless healing Profession in America or will you choose the most advertised, most changed, most sued, third leading cause of death in the United States? It is your choice, your life. Choose carefully. I am Dr. William Miskelly and I would like the opportunity to serve you.