William is a professional video gamer and spends a large portion of his week streaming intense content to his interested viewers on YouTube. He has been lucky enough to be able to make a living doing something he enjoys, but what he loves the most about his job is being able to prove his mom wrong for all the time she said playing games won’t help him in the real world. While William loves his job very much, it does have its problems. For example, even with the best game play equipment and comfortable chairs, Williams often suffers from chronic neck pain. The other day when he was streaming live, he mentioned having extreme neck pain and one of his followers wrote in and recommended that he try chiropractic care. After he read their email, he went to Google and searched: how does a chiropractor treat neck pain?
Neck pain can be a chronically painful condition that ranges from mild discomfort to severe pain. If gone untreated for too long, it can become extremely debilitating and can even interfere with your ability to complete simple tasks. It can be the result of chronic bad posture, tight or stiff muscles, or from an accident or injury. If you are suffering from neck pain, chiropractic care can be a very effective method for significantly reducing discomfort. When you work with the RxWellness Spine & Health chiropractic team at Tysons Corner, we can help you understand the root of your discomfort and then create a treatment plan to help you see major improvement.
What Contributes to Chronic Neck Pain
At RxWellness Spine & Health we treat a wide variety of complicated conditions, and neck pain is one of the most common complaints. It is nonspecific to age, gender, profession, or hobby and can affect anyone doing a job that requires holding the neck muscles in a specific position for a prolonged period of time. Some of the most commonly reported causes of neck pain include:
- Injury
- Trauma from a slip & fall or auto accident can cause misalignment in the cervical spine, which can add pressure on the nerves and contribute to soreness in the muscles.
- Repetitive stress injury
- Results from overusing one muscle for an extended period of time. Looking down at your computer is harmless, but looking down at your computer for eight hours a day, five times a week can cause significant stiffness, soreness, tightness, and chronic discomfort.
- Aging
- As you get older it becomes more likely that you develop degenerative disorders like osteoarthritis or spinal stenosis.
- Poor posture
- The central nervous system works best when the spine is in its optimal alignment, poor posture prevents the spine from maintaining that position. Consistently employing poor posture will eventually wear on the body and contribute to pain and chronic discomfort.
How Can I Manage Neck Pain at Home
Neck pain can be chronic and extremely painful, and while chiropractic care can be the best solution for reducing pain, there are also things you can do at home. A few steps to reducing neck pain include practicing proper posture whenever possible, and keeping the following tips in mind:
- Take regular breaks throughout the day and give your muscles time to rest.
- Try adjusting your workstation to create a more ergonomic design
- Use the correct pillow for your body type for a more comfortable night’s sleep
- Alternate between ice and heat for sore or inflamed muscles
How Does a Chiropractor Treat Neck Pain
When you work with the chiropractic team at RxWellness Spine & Health, we will first complete tests so they can provide the most accurate diagnosis. Once we have a diagnosis, we can create an effective treatment plan to help you see the most improvement. Two of the most common techniques used to treat neck pain are listed below:
- Cervical mobilization
- For this technique, the patient is relaxed and lying on their back. The chiropractor will move the vertebrae in the neck left to right, side to side, and in a figure eight position. This is a smooth motion that attempts to reduce areas of limited mobility.
- Cervical manual traction
- For this technique, the patient is usually lying face up and the chiropractor will gently pull the neck in an attempt to stretch the cervical spine at alternating angles.
RxWellness Spine & Health
When you work with the RxWellness Spine & Health chiropractic team, we will take x-rays to help us better understand what is contributing to your neck pain. Once we have an idea of your needs, we will create a care plan to help you see improvements. During your initial consultation, the doctor may examine your posture or feel for instability along the cervical spine. They might recommend neck adjustments to correct any misalignments as well as soft tissue manipulation to relax tight and tense muscles. In addition to spinal adjustments and massage therapy, your care team might also recommend some of the following services:
- Chiropractic adjustments
- VibraFlex® 450 therapy
- Spinal decompression
- Cold laser treatments
- Electric stimulation
- Massage therapy
- Rehabilitation exercises and postural correction techniques
Your care plan may consist of some of the above treatments or something else entirely, but regardless of what your doctor recommends, our goal is always to provide the most relief with the best long-term results.
Contact Us
Chiropractic care can be a very useful method for treating a variety of discomforts, and while chiropractors are most commonly known for treating back pain, they are also very effective at treating neck pain. When you work with the chiropractic team at RxWellness Spine & Health in Tysons Corner, we will work extremely hard to provide an accurate diagnosis and a detailed recovery plan to help you see the most results. If you are still online searching: how does a chiropractor treat neck pain, then contact the RxWellness Tysons team with all your questions and we can help you make a more informed decision about chiropractic care. If you have any questions or would like to set up a consultation at our Tysons Corner location please give us a call at 1(703) 904 9666 or book a consultation online.