Neck Pain

The neck is made up of the first 7 vertebrae of spine, including ligaments and muscles. Its main role is to support the heavy weight of the head and allow movements such as nodding and shaking of the head. As you can imagine, this is a tough role for the neck.

Neck pain can present as acute, sub- acute and chronic in nature and can be related to an injury or just the stress of the type of lives that we live. Neck pain will affect most people at some point in their life and is usually short lived and not all presentations will develop into a chronic problem.

Usually, neck pain that does not go away by itself will require a full assessment from a health care practitioner.

Neck pain affects approximately 10% of the population at any one time and statistically women are more likely to suffer with neck pain than men, with the onset being approximately 45 years of age for women and 60 years for men.

There have been a number of studies undertaken into the risk factors of developing chronic neck pain and these are identified as ‘yellow flags’.

For women, the yellow flags are identified as:

• High physical workload
• Intermediate and high work-related emotional exhaustion
• Common mental health disorders such as depression
• Rare to occasional sleep problems
• Overweight and obesity

For men, the yellow flags are identified as:

• Presence of chronic low back pain

• Previous acute neck pain
• Manual class worker compared with managers and professionals
• High work-related stress and exhaustion
• Frequent sleep problems

Our lifestyle plays a huge role in the development of neck pain, and these are some of the conditions that may be causing your neck pain. It is important that you seek professional help for your neck pain so the correct diagnosis and management can be given to you:

• Traumatic neck injury such as whiplash affected disorder (WAD)
• Acute cervical torticollis also known as wry neck
• Cervical facet syndrome (inflamed cervical facet joints)
• Discogenic or disc bulge with or without arm/shoulder pain and weakness
• Muscle strain or sprain
• Osteoarthritis
• Postural related neck pain such as ‘text neck’
• Other more sinister pathology related neck pain such as vascular emergencies or infection

Our Physiotherapists and Chiropractors are trained in the orthopaedic assessment of the neck and shoulder. They will assess your range of motion along with orthopaedic testing to work out a diagnosis for your neck pain. Sometimes you may also be referred for further imaging of your shoulder by our allied health team, such as an MRI or Xray to rule out any underlying pathology or injury.

If you would like to discuss your neck complaint but not sure who to book in with, why not book our FREE health discussion with one of our allied health practitioners.