Your neck consists of bones, ligaments, and muscles that support your head and enable motion. Injury or irritation to any of these parts can lead to neck pain. Neck pain Henderson is a common condition affecting ten to twenty percent of adults. Common causes of neck pain include aging, physical strain, injury, mental stress, and other health conditions. Most cases of neck pain improve with conservative treatments like medication and exercise. Untreated neck pain can interfere with your daily activities and reduce your quality of life. Here are effective ways to ease neck pain.
Apply heat or ice
Ice lowers blood flow to the affected neck area, reducing inflammation and swelling. If you have a soft tissue injury, you can apply ice for twenty minutes a few times daily. Ensure you have a cold compressor to prevent ice from directly touching your skin. Heat stimulates blood flow, reducing pain. Ice and heat can soothe a strained or torn muscle, giving it time to heal. You can alternate between cold or warm compressors or use the best that eases your symptoms.
Medications
Over-the-counter non-steroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAIDS) medications can help ease pain and inflammation. Commonly used NSAIDs include ibuprofen and naproxen sodium. Acetaminophen can help minimize pain but does not have anti-inflammatory properties.
Neck stretches
Neck stretches can help ease pain and stiffness and prevent the symptoms from recurring. Ensure you stretch gently and slowly and always breathe in and out fully. Overstretching or sudden movements may worsen your pain or injury. Common neck stretches that help relieve stiffness include rolling your shoulder backward and forward in a circle and slowly turning your head from side to side. Pressing your shoulder blades together lightly and holding the position for a few seconds can also be helpful.
Exercises
Your physical therapist can help you create a neck exercise program suitable for your neck pain. Neck exercises can help strengthen your muscles and bones and relieve tension from stress. Exercise also helps improve mental and overall health.
Corticosteroid injections
Corticosteroid injections help ease inflammation and pain. They can be used for neck pain resulting from multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, or sciatica. You can note results within a few hours or days. Corticosteroid injections often last one to three months. They can last longer when combined with other treatments like physical therapy. You can only have steroid injects four times at most per year as frequent injections can weaken the skin and bone around the injection site.
Radiofrequency ablation
Radiofrequency ablation can be beneficial if your neck pain results from a facet joint. The treatment involves your doctor placing special needles near your facet joint’s sensory nerve to help create a heat lesion, preventing pain signals from reaching your brain. Radiofrequency provides long-term relief in most patients. Studies show that about thirty percent of patients get relief over three years after radiofrequency ablation.
Neck pain occurs when neck structures are irritated or injured. Effective ways to ease neck pain include cold and hot compressors, medications, stretches, exercises, corticosteroid injections, and radiofrequency ablation. Schedule an appointment at McNulty Spine for neck pain treatment to resume your daily assignments.