Neck Pain
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- The neck or also known as cervical spine has a high flexibility due to the specially designed structure of the joints, discs and the muscle-ligaments systems.
- Consequently the neck can move relatively more freely than the rest of the spine where mobility are restricted by the ribcage and pelvis.
- Due to the high flexibility and mobility of the cervical spine, it is vulnerable to stresses and strains from our posture at work, daily activities and lifestyle choices.
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The Causes of Neck Pain
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- Neck Pain can be due a number of causes such as spondylosis or arthritis in the neck, overstretching of ligaments or muscles due to postural stresses, trauma to the neck, slipped disc, spinal nerve impingement and neuritis.
- The ligaments and other soft tissues which hold the cervical vertebrae together can be overstretched or compressed.
- Overstretching and/or compression of the soft tissues may be caused by an outside force placing a sudden severe strain on the neck, for instance due to an accident or during sports.
- More often the soft tissue distortion is caused by postural stresses which place accumulated strains on the neck over a long period.
- Complications arise when the distorted soft tissues leads to tissue inflammation or swelling hence, an acute symptoms and constant pains can be felt.
- Other common complication may include the cervical disc bulging or slipping outwards and slipped disc may impinge on the cervical nerves.
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Signs and Symptoms
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- Neck problems can have painful symptoms in other locations beside the neck region, such as in the head or facial regions, across the shoulder blades, in the arm, hand and/or fingers.
- Other common symptoms beside neck pain include muscle aches, joint stiffness, headaches, giddiness, pin and needles and/or weakness of the upper limb; sometime without the present of pain in the neck but the source of problem originated in the cervical spine.
- People who have neck pain may have to reduce their activities in order to keep the discomfort at a tolerable intensity, hence neck problems can thus affect our quality of life.
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Physiotherapy Management of Neck Pain
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- Some treatments are often able to stop your pain but the pain returns at some time later to affect you once more.
- This is most likely due to many of the treatments are prescribed for your present symptoms and are not directed at preventing future problems.
- Physiotherapy intervention aims to abolish pain and restore normal function.
- This is achieved by various physiotherapeutic techniques which can be administered to regain joint mobility, reduce soft tissue tension and improve muscle flexibility.
- Our physiotherapists prescribe individualized and evidence-based treatments to achieve your goal and well being.
- Our physiotherapists used manual therapy or hand-on r techniques and/or electrophysical modalities to treat your condition according to the stage of your neck problems.
- To prevent future neck pain occurrences, our physiotherapists will equip you with self management strategies which can be in the form of exercise program, postural education and ergonomics at work.
- The self management strategies are specific to you and based on thorough analyses of your neck problems and the predisposing activities.
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