Neck Pain Relief

You don’t realize how much you move your head until you are suffering with neck pain.

Every change of direction, all the head movements to do even the simplest of tasks, the range of motion we normally use to do things like look around when we are driving or doing other tasks, all rely on the mobility of our neck.

When you are experiencing neck pain, everything can seem difficult and painful to do.

Dr. Alexander has extensive training, experience, expertise, and certifications in diagnosing the cause of and treating neck pain.

Are you suffering from any of these neck pain related conditions:

Limited range of motion, inability to turn your head without pain
Tightness or stiffness in your neck
Headaches along with neck pain
General pain along your neck
Numbness, weakness or tingling down your arm

What causes neck pain?

As with any pain there can be many different causes.

Acute or sudden onset pain can be caused by:

Long hours at a computer, especially if there are poor work space ergonomics
Jerking or twisting your neck while exercising or doing other activities
Stress that causes muscle tightness or spasms
Sleeping in a wrong position

Lifestyle Issues

Regularly carrying a heavy bag on one shoulder
Too much time looking down at electronic devices, known as Text Neck
Lying on a couch with your head propped up watching TV or reading

All of these can result in muscle and/or tendon strain which can become a soft tissue injury and can pull the vertebrae of your neck out of their proper alignment. When a vertebrae is out of alignment it can press on surrounding nerves causing pain.

A sudden traumatic event

Whiplash caused by an auto accident, sports accident or falls?
A sports-related injury
A hard fall

These types of traumatic injuries can throw the vertebrae of your neck out of alignment as well as causing damage to the muscles, tendons, and nerves of your neck.

Chronic Neck Pain

There are also several causes that occur over time and can lead to chronic neck pain.

This type of neck pain can either be resolved or managed through chiropractic therapy and in some cases in lifestyle changes:

Bone spurs
Herniated or bulging disc
Degenerative disc disease
Pinched nerve

Services

Neck pain can impact your whole life

Get Chiropractic care to relieve the pain and improve your life

How does chiropractic care help relieve neck pain?

To help determine the cause of your neck pain, Dr. Alexander will do a complete Chiropractic/Orthopedic exam, often including an x-ray. Once he can pinpoint the cause of your pain, he will recommend a specific treatment plan to help correct the problem

If your neck pain is acute or sudden onset or is caused by lifestyle issues, your care plan may recommend therapies including chiropractic adjustments to put a vertebra back in position, short term ice therapy, and stretching/strengthening exercises.

As any healing process is a joint effort between yourself and Dr. Alexander, he can make suggestions on life activity changes that will help avoid future problems. For example, to change your desk ergonomics or to balance out heavy bags/carry them with the strap across your chest rather than on one shoulder, change your TV watching position, etc.

For more complex causes, such as a whiplash, bulging disc, disc degeneration/arthritis, nerve damage, or congenital issues, additional therapies, along with a series of chiropractic adjustments, would be part of a recommended care plan.

What is a chiropractic adjustment, and how do they help?

If a vertebra in the neck is out of position, pressing on a nerve and causing pain, chiropractic adjustments are used to move that out of place vertebra back to its correct position and take the pressure off surrounding nerves and muscles. This improves the spinal movement and your body’s overall function

Adjustments, done either manually by hand or with a specially designed adjusting instrument, use a gentle force at specific points on the spine to re-align out of place vertebrae. Dr. Alexander is highly skilled and experienced at both manual and instrument adjusting using an Activator or Arthrostim instrument.

Care Plan Therapies

Cervical Traction/Decompression

Cervical traction/decompression is a light stretching of the neck. It helps create space between the vertebrae to keep the spinal discs healthy. It can also open up the spaces where nerves exit the spinal canal, which can help relieve pressure off of a compressed nerve.

Ice Therapy (Cryotherapy)

Muscle spasms and inflammation commonly contribute to neck pain. Ice therapy may be recommended to help reduce inflammation and provide temporary pain relief. Ice therapy helps numb painful areas and relax muscle spasms.

Low Light Laser Therapy

Low Light laser therapy helps increase blood flow and stimulate healing cell activity by sending a specific light energy into the mitochondria of cells. This cell activity helps accelerate the healing of damaged tissues and helps reduce pain and inflammation leading to better joint mobility.

Ultrasound Therapy

Ultrasound, using high-frequency sound waves, is a therapeutic treatment that creates a heat response in tissues deep within the body,. This heat response increases blood flow, relaxes muscle spasms, and speeds the healing process of damaged tissues.

Therapeutic Massage

Either gentle Swedish massage or neuromuscular massage can be used to relax tight or spasming neck and shoulder muscles to help relieve pain and prevent muscles from pulling against the vertebrae of the neck.

When to See a Chiropractor for Neck Pain

If you experience neck pain after exercising, sleeping, working long hours or engaging in a sports activity, or other activities, first try resting and putting ice on the affected area. If you are still suffering from neck pain after a day or two, make an appointment to make sure you have not done more severe injury to your neck and begin the repair process.
If you experience sudden and/or extreme neck pain that restricts your ability to move or do certain activities, set up an appointment immediately to determine if you have a serious injury.
If you experience pain, numbness, weakness, or tingling in your shoulder or down your arm, call us to set up an appointment to determine the extent of injury to your neck that is causing these symptoms.
Set up an appointment as soon as possible if you have been experiencing chronic or severe neck pain.
If you have been involved in an automobile accident, even a minor fender bender, make sure to get checked out by Dr. Alexander as soon as possible. Even a very low-speed accident can result in injury to delicate neck muscles, other soft tissues such as ligaments and tendons and throw your spine out of position. Uncorrected these injuries can cause long term problems.

Find relief from neck pain in Lawrenceville

I was experiencing numbness and tingling quite often in my right arm, as well as stiffness in my neck. Since coming to Dr. Alexander’s office, these conditions have dramatically improved. Occasionally I will have pain in one of my hips from driving too long on trips and it will only take one visit to Dr. Alexander to alleviate the pain.

– Sherri S. // Gainesville, Ga.

When I woke up one morning unable to move my neck, I went to my regular doctor and he told me there was nothing he could do but prescribe pain pills. I left his office and called Dr. Alexander’s office. Within weeks, I was feeling better than I had in a very long time. He has corrected problems that I wasn’t aware that I had, but it has made a great difference in my life. I am sleeping better and am more active than ever. Thank you Dr. Alexander.

– Richard P. // Lawrenceville, Ga.

My neck had been in pain for 3 ½ years. I was on medication during that time which was causing bleeding and masking the pain, but not fixing the problem. When I came off the medicine I was in severe pain and then found Dr. Alexander after going to many other doctors who were not able to help. Now after seeing Dr. Alexander for only a short time my neck is so much better and I am off all my medications for pain!

– Jewell P. // Lawrenceville, G

Upon arriving to Dr. Alexander’s office I honestly couldn’t think clearly. The pain was unbearable in my neck, right shoulder and right arm. Taking pain pills just to dull the pain was also adding to my problem. Dr. Alexander said he could help me. Words of God to my ears. After just 2 hours of rehabilitation that day I could not believe the difference I felt. I could honestly smile walking out the door (Something I hadn’t done for 2 weeks) Dr. Alexander has worked with me everyday. Each day there is more improvement. I do believe in prayer – but I also believe in miracle workers…Dr. Alexander!

– Lee Ann L. // Lawrenceville, Ga..