What Is The Major Cause Of My Neck Pain, And How To Get Relief From This Neck Pain?
Neck pain is a widespread complaint, and it occurs in about one out of three people at least once a year. It is a common sign of many different injuries and medical conditions.
The chance of neck pains might increase with age. It can be acute or chronic. Neck pain interferes with daily activities and reduces your quality of life if left untreated.
What Are The Causes Of My Neck Pain?
- The possible causes of neck pain include aging, injury, poor posture, Mental Stress, and physical strain.
- Neck pain may be caused due to disc degeneration, arthritis, spinal canal narrowing, strain, muscle inflammation, etc. Sometimes it may be a sign of cancer or meningitis in rare cases.
- Diseases such as arthritis will lead to degeneration of the bones or joints of your cervical spine that may cause disc herniation.
- Sudden severe injury to the neck also contributes to disc herniation, blood vessel destruction, vertebral injury, and whiplash. It may lead to permanent paralysis in extreme cases.
- Herniated discs or bone spurs cause a narrowing of the spinal canal. In addition, it may cause small openings through which spinal nerve roots exit, putting pressure on your spinal cord. Due to this cause of the pressure on the spinal cord can be a severe problem in the cervical region.
What Does Neck Pain Feel Like?
You might have axial neck pain that is felt primarily on the neck or radicular neck pain, which shoots into other areas such as the shoulders or arms. Some people describe the pain as:
- A persistent ache
- Neck pain with severe headache
- A stabbing or burning pain
- Increased sensitivity to mild pressure applied to the neck
- Increased tension or tightening in the muscles in the neck
- Numbness and tingling in your arms
What Helps My Neck Pain Go Away?
Most of the neck pain will go away in a few days with rest, gentle stretching, NSAIDs, or Tylenol for pain. Cold therapy such as ice for acute spasms and strain can be helpful and even alternated with heat. Massage is often beneficial for persistent spasm.
How To Get Rid Of Neck Pain?
The remedies for neck and back pain include:
- You can ease your neck pain by numbing the pain area with ice a bag or heat packs.
- By stretching and strengthening exercises.
- Avoid lousy or bad posture that triggers neck pain.
- Take good rest.
How Is Our Neck Pain Diagnosed?
- Pain management specialists in our neck pain clinic will diagnose your neck pain with a physical exam and look closely at your medical history. Then, they will move your neck to locate pain, find your neck motion problems, and check your muscle strength and reflexes.
- Our physician will ask about previous neck injuries that might have caused whiplash or a herniated disc and ask about work or other activities that would affect your neck frequently.
- To diagnose the causes of your neck pain, our pain management specialist may use imaging tests such as X-ray, computed tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging. These tests will show damage and other issues in the bones and surrounding tissues in your neck.
- Our doctor for the neck pain treatment in Singapore may order other tests include electromyography, nerve conduction studies, nerve root block myelogram. These tests look closely at the discs in the spine, check the function of nerves and muscle response, and source of the pain.
How Is My Neck Pain Treated?
Treatment for your neck pain varies depending on the causes. It aims to relieve pain and improve function. Our specialist for neck pain tretment in Singapore can treat inflammation with oral or injectable anti-inflammatory medication, Muscle spasms with oral medication or botox injections, and nerve pain with joint blocks and other procedures.
A primary care physician, such as a neurosurgeon, should be consulted to make an accurate diagnosis and prescribe treatment for severe neck problems. Contact our specialist if you have neck pain that interferes with your work or other daily activities.
In some cases, this pain can signify a medical emergency. You have to seek urgent medical help if your neck pain:
- If you have frequent pains after any accidents.
- If you are experiencing some symptoms, including headache, dizziness nausea, or vomiting.
- If you are experiencing chills, fever, or unexplained weight loss.
- If your pain stays the same when resting or moving.
- If your pain does not respond to over-the-counter medications.
What To Expect When I Visit The Pain Relief Clinic
A typical visit will involve our doctor first understanding your medical history, concerns and previous experience with other pain treatments.
For patients who have consulted many people but have yet to receive a clear diagnosis, selecting an affordable imaging scan might be recommended to confirm the cause of your pain..
Some patients have already done scans with other doctors for their pain condition but are still not clearly told what they suffer from.
Dr Terence Tan is happy to offer you a second opinion and recommend how best to manage your condition.
We also see patients who already have a confirmed diagnosis from specialist pain doctors, but are "stuck” because treatment options offered are not practical or acceptable.
We can help by discussing options that you might have potentially never been told of.
A common experience is when a patient has already consulted a specialist doctor for pain management and is told to consider orthopaedic surgery which they find too aggressive.
Or they may have seen doctors for their pain and were prescribed painkillers with potential side effects which made them feel uncomfortable.
Many of our patients have also first tried complementary treatments or acupuncture with traditional Chinese pain doctors.
They look for a second opinion after finding any relief experienced from other treatments to be temporary or requiring repetitive treatments, which add up to time and cost.
Especially in such situations, we emphasize using non-invasive medical technology you likely have not been told about .
This can make a big difference to your results.