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Neck pains are aches, pain and discomfort that are experienced in the neck (which is the front, back and left / right sides of the neck). It means the entire area that's above the shoulder and below the head.
The neck houses a lot of very important structures, such as the cervical nerves, and unfortunately yes, the nerves can sometimes be affected by injury, slipped discs or other issues that affects nerves, and this can cause pain that radiates (travels) to
Yes, all from the neck.
That's why as a hand therapist, whenever I treat patients, I have to do differential diagnosis to check if there are higher-nerve involvement, not just look, assume and treat fingers and hands.
Neck pains are so common that it affects 30% of the population in Singapore and Asia. That means if you're in an office or classroom of 100 persons, at least 30 of them have neck aches and pains!
Neck pains can be caused by sudden injuries or trauma such as
...and also caused by slow, non-trauma accidents such as
Most of the time, neck aches and pains seem to affect moreso adults between 25-50 years of age...but of course, there are people who gets neck issues at young age (we have had neck pain patients who are 5 years old, who fell and sprained their neck) and older ones more than 60 years old.
Some cervical pain studies are showing that women are more likely than men to suffer neck pain.
Risk factors for getting neck pain includes:
People with neck pain can have difficulty doing / participating in activities such as
The good news is that most of neck pain issues and patients do not need invasive injections or surgeries for their necks, and respond well to neck physiotherapy.
Whew.
Only a very, very small handful of patients will benefit from neck surgery (we will tell you), and it needs to have a variety of reasons such as
Regardless if you choose to have neck surgery or injections, you will 100% benefit from neck physiotherapy sessions to:
The most common description of neck aches and pains by patients we'd seen since 2005:
For some patients, they / their neck pains may be caused by inflamed or irritated nerves that may radiate and travel to
This symptom is called cervical radiculopathy.
Our senior physios will assess and determine if this is something you have, and refer you to a suitable neck orthopedic doctor for the right treatment for your neck pains.
Signs and symptoms of your neck pain will depend entirely on the structures that are injured or affected, as well as how severe it is and how long it has been.
The common signs of neck pains and issues:
Some other neck pain symptoms:
Neck pains are the kind of injuries that we always take our time to deep-dive and determine the underlying issues, and cannot just treat and go.
We will need to do a thorough examination which will include:
Taking an in-depth health history, to find out:
Next, physical and neck assessment to check for neck problems such as:
If there's any or multiple of the neck problems above, we will plan out your neck physio treatment (it's part of our spinal back and neck physiotherapy program) and get you back to normal working, living and playing again.
If we suspect any more potential severe problems during your neck cervical assessment and treatments, we will refer you to a neck orthopedic doctor who we trust to get an MRI done.
Medical and physiotherapy research is showing that spinal physio is the best treatment for neck pains and aches compared to neck injections or surgeries. This is likely because
We're NOT against neck injections or surgeries especially when it's medically necessary. When is it necessary? When the pain is too much to bear, be it due to intensity or duration (some patients have pain 24/7), or there is too much risk to not do surgery, such as severe instability etc.
In fact, we work with a number of orthopedic doctors in Singapore, and we have number of trusted ones that we have built relationship and trust over years, so we are more than happy to refer you to a neck orthopedic doctor if you want to have their opinion on your neck pain.
A large number of orthopedic doctors actually refer most of their neck pain patients to us to treat patient's necks to avoid surgery and medication. Most of the time, it works.
In the rare event where patients need neck surgery, the patient will undergo:
To accelerate recovery of range of motion, pain relief and strength / function of their necks.
Our neck physios will work with you to speed up your neck pain recovery, and you can expect to also get specific cervical neck exercises and treatments that you need to do between neck physio sessions with us.
We will work with you to:
Pain relief / reduction, manage neck-related symptoms
The first and most immediate thing to do is to get you some neck pain relief and pain reduction, so that it will free up some energy for you to be able to participate more in self care, activities, sleep and even work.
We may use gentle hands-on techniques, known as manual therapy, to work on the soft tissues in the neck in a careful manner to improve range of motion and pain.
We may also use some rehab technologies such as
Depending on what will benefit your neck most and what is most suitable.
Avoid neck surgery
In all neck pain cases, our neck physios will create a neck rehab program for your neck, even if you have severe cervical radiculopathy (pain from nerves in the neck that radiates downwards to shoulder, back, arm and hand) to help prevent neck surgery or even injections where possible.
Improve posture
For patients with poor posture that aggravates and causes neck pain, after relieving the neck pain, we will start specific neck strengthening exercises for you so that your neck will regain the full strength and power it needs to support your head and shoulders.
Patients report higher alertness and awareness with the improved head-neck-shoulder strength.
Restore neck movements and motions
Working on improving neck movements, which are
is the 2nd thing that we will work on for neck aches and pain physiotherapy.
We will start with soft tissue gliding and stretches first, which are passively done by us to your soft tissue, this is to increase the flexibility and stretch of the neck joints, muscles, tendons and ligaments...
...followed by active stretches which are done by yourself between neck physio sessions, to maintain and keep the neck supple.
Improve your neck flexibility
This is slightly different but related to neck movement - often there are tightness or tight structures in the neck causing neck stiffness, pain and mobility issues.
For these, we will also have to work on the movements as above in restoring neck movements, but with 1 additional treatment: to treat the tightness AND the find out what's causing that particular tightness. You see, tightness has a cause, be it due to posture, compensation, injury - something.
We will have to palpate and find out and treat.
Improve neck muscle and joint strength
This is slightly related to neck flexibility, in the sense if there's weakness and/or compensatory strength - we need to find out what's weak, what's overstrong to compensate, and why -- then we can treat with the correct specific exercises that will gently but surely restore your neck muscle and joint strength.
Patients report being able to hold up their heads longer to work, play, etc without neck fatigue or ache or pain setting in very fast. You may be placed under a program of core stability and strengthening to restore the strength and coordination of muscles around your spine.
Improve stamina and endurance in your neck
Once we're working on neck pain, then movement and then power...next, we need to work on improving your neck stamina and endurance.
Ie you help your neck build tolerance for activities, work and sports -- whatever you want or need a stronger and pain-free neck to do.
Return to Activities
In the end, all neck physio activities is aligned and geared towards
What you can expect is discussions and goals with the neck physio that will get your neck treatment program.
As your neck pain improves, it will be important for you to continue your new posture and movement habits to keep your neck healthy and pain free.
After your neck surgery
As I mentioned earlier, neck injections or surgeries are pretty rare, but there are those that are medically necessary, especially to relieve pressure on a compressed cervical nerve or unstable neck joint.
If you need to do neck injections or surgery, be assured that when you come in for your neck physiotherapy, we will assign you a neck-experienced / expert to work with you.
One of the most common questions that patients ask us is how many neck physio sessions they need, and sometimes we cant answer it straightforward because everyone's
What we can do is to give you a range, very mild cases may need up to 6 sessions, and very severe ones may need up to 30 or more. Most fall into a range of 6-12 sessions, more or less.