Chiropractic Treatment for Neck Pain

What is Neck pain?

Neck pain is one of the most common problem faced by people around the globe, it can pose significant impacts on people’s day-to-day life. In most cases, neck pain will subside in a few days, however, in some severe cases, neck pain can be a sign of serious injury or underlying disease that will need medical attention.

To understand neck pain, we first need to understand its anatomy. The neck is made out of 7 vertebrae that connect the skull to your upper back with cervical discs in between each vertebra that absorb loads. Surrounding the vertebrae are ligaments and muscles that allow movement and stabilisation of your neck. Any inflammation, injury or tear of these structures can cause pain in your neck.

What Causes Neck Pain?

There are numerous ways one can acquire neck pain. Here are a few common causes of neck pain:

• Poor posture
• Whiplash trauma
• Sport injury
• Staying in a fixed position for too long
• Bad neck position during sleep
• Repetitive neck movement
• Chronic stress
• Overwork
• Lifting heavy weights

However, there are also some less common causes of neck pain that might indicate something more severe, that include:

• Meningitis
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Osteoporosis
• Herniated cervical disc
• Spinal stenosis
• Tumour
• Infections

What are the Symptoms of Neck Pain?

Some common symptoms of neck pain include:

• Stabbing pain in one localised spot
• Dull and achy pain in an area
• Unable to turn head around due to stiffness
• On-going or short-lived pain
• Pain radiating from the neck to other parts of the body such as the upper back, shoulder, arm or the head.
• The intensity of the pain can range from mild to severe enough to affect usual day-to-day activities.

How can Neck Pain be diagnosed?

 At Lakeside Chiropractic, we diagnose neck pain by taking a comprehensive patient history with some physical examinations during our initial appointment. You will be asked several questions during the history taking to describe your neck pain in detail, and we will discuss other factors like your habit, lifestyle, medical history, occupation and your family’s medical history to assist the diagnosis.

After that, we will go through some physical examination to rule in or out some potential diagnoses and the tests might include posture examination, range of motion of the neck, reflexes and muscle strength. In some cases, we will refer you for either a CT scan, X-ray (bulk billed ) or MRI imaging to support the diagnosis.

Chiropractic Treatment for Neck Pain

After getting a diagnosis, we can start structuring a treatment plan. There are some treatment options that can be beneficial for your neck pain and it depends on the severity of your neck pain too. Some chiropractic treatments for neck pain include:

• Chiropractic Adjustment – This is a gentle yet firm manipulation of the spine that will help reducing any tension or stiffness of your neck and increase its mobility. It usually comes with a “cracking” or “pop” sound during the adjustment. Chiropractic adjustment on the neck is extremely controlled as chiropractors will perform a series of tests before the manipulation to make sure that the manipulation will not harm the patient in any way.
• Soft Tissue Therapy – At Lakeside Chiropractic, we provide remedial massage therapy that can help releasing tension in your neck. Furthermore, we utilise electrical muscle stimulation that can also reduce tension and tightness of the muscles surrounding your neck. Soft tissue therapy combining with chiropractic adjustment can give you the best result for your pain.
• Neck traction to reduce pressure on joints and discs
• Dry needling to reduce tension or tight muscle bands
• Strapping to support injured tissue whilst it heals or used to correct posture
• Exercises – Exercises or neck stretches can be challenging for some people especially with all the pain and tension in their neck. However, with the some guidance from our chiropractor, you will be able to perform those exercises and stretches the right way without harming yourself. Exercises and neck stretches will reduce tension in your neck while strengthening the weaken muscles, thus reducing your neck pain.

Treatment for Neck Pain!

At Lakeside Chiropractic, out trained professionals will provide all the care you need and aim to decrease intensity and frequency of your neck pain as soon as possible. WE get to the cause of the problem to correct any underlying problems . Lakeside Chiropractic is located in Joondalup, central to Perth’s Northern Suburbs. We have many visitors from various surrounding suburbs including Kingsley, Wanneroo, Burns Beach, Kallaroo, Beldon, Heathridge, Greenwood and North Beach. We also have on site HICAPS Facilities for all major health insurance providers in addition to being a Medibank Preferred Practitioner and BUPA first provider. We also accept Medicare referrals from General Practitioners. If you are in need of any further information or wish to book an appointment please give us a call on 9300 0095 or check out our website at www.lakesidechiro.com.au.