Neck Pain Q & A
What causes neck pain?
Neck pain may be the result of trauma to your neck muscles from an injury, poor posture, or overuse. This type of acute neck pain usually resolves on its own with time and over-the-counter medications.
When your neck pain becomes chronic, lasting longer than six months, it may be due to underlying health issues that affect your cervical (neck) spine, such as:
- Arthritis
- Bone spurs
- A herniated disc
- Nerve compression
Chronic neck pain makes it difficult to move your neck. If you have a compressed (pinched) nerve, you may also experience weakness, numbness, and tingling that radiates down into your shoulders, arms, and hands.
How is neck pain diagnosed?
To identify the root cause of your neck pain, the providers at DYNAMIC Pain and Wellness offer on-site diagnostic testing. You may need an X-ray or other imaging test to identify arthritis or disc degeneration or blood work to rule out infection.
Once your provider understands the source of your pain, they customize a treatment plan to relieve it and help improve your overall range of motion in your cervical spine.
How is neck pain treated?
Treating neck pain without surgery is the goal of the DYNAMIC Pain and Wellness pain management team. They offer several minimally invasive, in-office procedures for neck pain, including:
Facet joint injections
A facet joint injection delivers anesthetic and steroid medications into the affected facet joints, the small joints that provide stability in your upper spine.
To ensure the precise delivery of the injection, your provider uses real-time X-ray technology (fluoroscopy) to guide the needle into the targeted facet joint.
Epidurals
An epidural is an injectable therapy that delivers anesthetic medications into the epidural space of your spine. The medicines disrupt pain signals from traveling to your brain, thereby easing chronic neck pain.
Radiofrequency ablation
Radiofrequency ablation is a nonsurgical procedure to treat nerves in your cervical spine that are responsible for persistent pain. After a needle is inserted into the treatment area, electric currents of energy move through the needle to heat the nerve and interfere with the transmission of pain signals.
The team at DYNAMIC Pain and Wellness also offers regenerative therapies like stem cell therapy and platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections to heal damage in your cervical spine.
To find out more about treatment options for chronic neck pain, call DYNAMIC Pain and Wellness or schedule an appointment online today.
