Neck Pain

The nerves in your neck carry information between your arms and brain. They transmit sensations like hot, cold, pressure, and pain. These nerves activate the muscles in your arms. A pinched nerve occurs when a nerve in the neck – the part connected to the spinal cord – is injured or inflamed. This can be caused by a sudden motion like a fall or accident, something you are doing repetitively, or degenerative changes to the bones or discs in the neck. Symptoms of a pinched nerve can include: 

• Numbness
• Sharp pain
• Limited range of motion
• Weakness in the upper extremity

Your treatment plan to deal for a pinched nerve will typically include multiple therapies: heat or ice to help with pain management, physical therapy, posture education, TENS (Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation), and exercises to improve range of motion and strength. The goal is to reduce stress on your neck, strengthen the supporting structures, improve flexibility, and eliminate pain.

Neck strain is an injury to the muscles and tendons that support and move your head and neck. Symptoms of repetitive neck strain can include: 

• Stiffness
• Pain
• Muscle spasms
• Limited range of motion
• Weakness

Your treatment plan to address the problems of repetitive strain injuries will typically include therapies like: heat or ice to help with pain management, physical therapy, posture education, massage, and exercises to improve your flexibility, strength and endurance. Your therapist will also provide you with exercises you can do at home. 

Whiplash is damage that occurs due to a forceful, rapid, back-and-forth movement in your neck. Getting rear ended in a car is a common cause, but whiplash can also result from other types of trauma like sports accidents. When whiplash occurs the muscles in your neck don’t have time to react. The sudden movement can strain, rip and tear muscles, ligaments, and other tissues. In severe cases, fractures can occur in the bones of the neck (vertebrae).

Symptoms of whiplash can include:

• Pain or stiffness
• Dizziness
• Fatigue
• Headaches
• Tingling or numbness in your arms
• Limited range of motion
• Tenderness or pain in your shoulder, upper back or arms
• It is important to note however, that due to the shock and trauma that is common right after an accident, you may not feel immediately feel significant pain. Whiplash typically feels worse a day or two after the injury as inflammation sets in and tissues become swollen. This can lead to headaches, pain with movement and even numbness / tingling into the upper extremities.

If you experienced whiplash in the past and didn’t take care of it, you may suffer from persistent weakness of the neck muscles which can lead to more and more problems in the future. The treatment plan your Proliance Physical & Hand Therapy expert designs to address your unique whiplash injury and symptoms will typically include therapies like: heat or ice to help with pain management, posture education, TENS (Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation), massage, and stretching and movement exercises designed to help restore range of motion so you can return to the activities you love without pain. Strengthening and postural exercises are very important to maintain stability in the neck after a whiplash injury.

When the space between the vertebrae decreases it is called Degenerative Disc Disease. This can be caused by an injury but also can be the result of the natural aging process. Degenerative disc disease can occur anywhere in the spine but occurs most often in the discs in the lower back (lumbar region) and the neck (cervical region). DDD causes pain, stiffness, loss of motion and limited daily function. 85% of people will show evidence of disc degeneration by the age of fifty and 75% will experience back/neck pain at some point in their lifetime. The majority of these cases can be resolved with physical therapy. Symptoms of Degenerative Disc Disease in the neck can include:

• Pain radiating into the shoulders, arms, or hands.
• Weakness, tingling, or aching pain in the shoulders, arms, or hands
• Sitting, lifting, and twisting may trigger pain or increase it.

Your treatment plan to address DDD will typically include: heat or ice to help with pain management, stretching and flexibility exercises to improve mobility, electrical stimulation, traction, manual therapy, education about ergonomics and biomechanics to help you avoid the triggering the symptoms. The goal is to help you return to the activities you love without pain.

A lifetime of constant use of our neck joints and muscles can lead to changes in the joints and bones (vertebrae) of the neck. This constant wear can result in changes to the bones, that long with poor posture, can cause bone spurs that rub and irritate the surrounding tissue.

Bone spurs can protrude in the holes in the spine where the nerves exit. This is called foramental stenosis. When the bone spurs affect the central spinal cord canal it is called central stenosis. Spinal stenosis of either type can cause a variety of symptoms. In milder cases patients may experience chronic pain, or numbness and tingling into the arms. With severe cases of central canal stenosis where the spinal cord is affected, symptoms like poor balance, leg pain or difficulty with walking can occur.

Osteoarthritis in the neck—Symptoms can include chronic pain, stiffness and limited range of motion when turning the head sideways or up and down. Pain can be worse first thing in the morning or after sitting in one place for a long time.

Rheumatoid arthritis in the neck—Symptoms can be moderate to severe neck pain. If your diagnosis includes rheumatoid arthritis in the neck your therapist will work with you to build and maintain strength in your shoulders, neck and postural muscles. Rheumatoid arthritis often weakens a key ligament in the upper neck and can be a serious health risk if injured.

Your treatment plan to address neck arthritis will start with a careful assessment of your range of motion, joint mobility, strength, and posture in collaboration with your doctor. This data will help your Proliance Physical & Hand Therapy expert to develop the best plan of treatment for you. Neck arthritis therapy typically includes a combination of gentle manipulation and massage to restore the range of motion in your neck, strengthening and range of motion exercises, and postural re–training. Our goal is to help restore your natural movement, eliminate pain, and get you back to doing all the things you love.

Pain in your shoulders, arms, and hands, can be caused by problems in your neck or “cervical spine”. The nerves that carry information about sensation and direct movement for those areas exit from the neck region of your spine. If you suffer from poor posture, muscle weakness or injury, or poor alignment, it can lead to structural problems and narrowing of the holes where the nerves exit your spinal cord. This can lead to a host of mild to severe problems. You might first feel this “radiating pain” as mild, occasional tingling down your shoulder, arms, or hands. As it gets worse the pain increases and numbness in the upper extremities can occur.

If you have any of these symptoms, please get evaluated immediately. Physical therapy can be effective and if the problems are caught early reduced pretty quickly. Ultimately, the speed of your recovery will depend on the extent of the damage, how long it’s been going on and how severe the symptoms are.

Your treatment plan to address pain or numbness that radiates down your shoulders and arms will start with a careful assessment in collaboration with your doctor. After your Proliance Physical & Hand Therapy expert has identified what is causing the compression on your nerves and where it is occurring, they will provide a customized plan to improve your neck joint mobility and posture, improve alignment and muscle strength, and return support and stability to your neck. A healthy neck will reduce pressure on the nerves that are causing your problems which then allows those nerves to heal. That typically resolves the problem and patients can resume full function.

Forward head syndrome is a common problem we help patients with now that people spend so much time working at computers and looking at phones. Forward Head Syndrome describes a condition where, due to changes in posture, the head juts forward and shortens the neck.

The changes to your spine that cause Forward Head Syndrome typically occur over time due to some type of habitually poor posture. For example, prolonged daily sitting without getting up to stretch and move around, working at a computer, slouching while watching TV, too much looking at your phone throughout the day, or a combination of these types of activities that cause your head (a ten to twelve pounds weight) to excessively pull forward on your spine. Over time what happens is that the normal curve in your neck is reduced, the length of the spine decreases, and muscles in your neck become weaker. This can lead to neck pain, headaches, and even impinged nerves that start radiating pain down to your shoulders, arms, and hands.

Your treatment plan will be based on a careful assessment of your symptoms in collaboration with your doctor to identify activities that could be causing your posture problems. Your Proliance Therapist’s goal is to improve your posture and change your neck back to a healthier shape. Your therapy will include a customized combination of massage, stretching, special exercises and postural re–training, to improve your posture, spinal alignment, and neck strength. Your therapist will also train you on how to sustain the improvements after you finish your Proliance Physical & Hand Therapy sessions so you can live a pain free life and get back to all the activities you love.

There are many different types of surgery for the neck region. Cervical fusion is a surgery to stabilize the neck by fusing two or more adjacent vertebrae. Full or partial discectomy may be performed when discs are damaged or herniated. If you have surgery on your neck or cervical spine your surgeon will refer you to us to help reduce pain, improve motion, increase strength, keep swelling to a minimum, all to help you return to the activities you love as quickly as possible.

At Proliance Physical & Hand Therapy our experts don’t just treat your symptoms. We take the time to understand the root cause of your pain so we can develop the optimum plan to promote healing. Your therapist won’t just help you get better, they will also provide education and exercises with the goal of helping you achieve a healthy, strong, and pain free lifestyle.