If you struggle with neck pain, you’re not alone. The catch is you may have different descriptions about it. If you ask other people to describe what exactly they’re feeling, you would most likely get varied explanations. But why is that?
Describing how your neck pain feels, along with its accompanying symptoms, could help your doctor figure out exactly what’s causing it and how to treat it. With that said, below are the most common kinds of neck pain:
Head Pain
Head pain that’s related to neck pain typically manifests in the upper neck and back portion of the head, which is often caused by muscle spasm or tension. This pain is achy and dull instead of sharp and stabbing. Your neck might likewise feel tender and stiff.
Muscle Ache
Sore or aching shoulder and neck muscles might occur as a response to prolonged or overexertion of emotional or physical stress. You might feel stiff and tender knots in your neck called trigger points.
Muscle Spasm
This is characterized as a potent and sudden tightening sensation of your neck muscles. You might feel significant knotting and tightness in your neck, and turning your head might be an impossible task.
For instance, when waking up with an agonizing stiff and painful neck, that’s probably a spasm. This kind of neck pain might be caused by injury to your neck muscles, but physical rehabilitation and pain facilities in Chandler, Arizona noted that it might likewise be caused by a nerve or spinal disc issue.
Nerve Pain
A pinched or irritated spinal nerve could result in severe, fleeting, and sharp pain and might come with the pins and needles sensation. You might also feel pain radiating down to your arm and hand depending on the exact nerve affected.
Facet Joint Pain
Often characterized by an aching, sharp, and deep pain in a part of the neck’s vertebrae — called facet joints — this pain usually gets worse when tilting your head and might go down into your upper back or shoulder.
Bone Pain
Feeling tenderness and pain in your cervical vertebrae requires immediate medical help and diagnosis as it might indicate a more serious underlying condition.
Referred Pain
This is pain that’s felt in only one part of your body and is usually caused by an issue in another body part. For instance, worsening neck pain might signal a problem with your heart.
Fortunately, there are plenty of different treatments for easing and managing neck pain. Generally speaking, the first line of pain treatment is medications, but other common treatment includes ice and heat applications, stretching, massage therapy, chiropractic care, and neck strengthening exercises. Surgery might only be considered in the event that there’s a clear cause of the neck pain and that it will only go away with surgery. Individuals with chronic pain should likewise consider supplementary pain management therapy to help them manage their symptoms better and reduce its negative effects on your daily life. Talk to your doctor to find out the best treatment plan for you.