Neck Pain Specialist
Neck pain doesn’t always remain isolated to the space between your head and shoulders. It can spread into your shoulders and arms, and limit your ability to turn your head. Contact the doctors at Austin Chiropractic Associates if you live in the Austin, Texas area and have pain, stiffness, or limited mobility in your neck and shoulders. Simon Forster, DC, and Brian N. Forrest, DC, can determine if a vertebral subluxation, or misalignment, is to blame and they’ll help resolve your pain.
What causes neck pain?
Neck pain usually is caused by some type of injury, although it can stem from the things you do every day, too. For instance, neck pain can come from:
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Osteoarthritis
- Fibromyalgia
- Poor posture
- Sitting for too long
- Sleeping in poor positions
- Jerking your neck while exercising
- Whiplash
While less common, neck pain also can be a warning sign of a medical issue, including heart attack, cancer of the spine, infection, or meningitis.
Is a whiplash injury preventable?
Probably not. Whiplash occurs when your head snaps back and forth, or side to side. Whiplash can cause symptoms, including:
- Severe neck pain
- Neck stiffness
- Headaches
- Shoulder pain
- Numbness in your arm, or hand
- Dizziness
- Sleep disturbances
The back and forth motion can cause tiny tears in the muscles, tendons, or ligaments in your neck. While often it’s associated with car accidents, you can get whiplash from contact injuries in sports, falling on the ground, vigorous dancing, or even from working out. You might not even know you have whiplash right away. Sometimes the pain doesn’t start for hours, or even several days.
How can I get relief from neck pain?
Neck pain relief starts with a thorough diagnosis. Dr. Forster and/or Dr. Forrest sit down with you to discuss your symptoms, family medical history, and previous health. If you had an injury and have already seen a practitioner, or had imaging done, bring that information with you to help with the diagnosis process.
Once we have a proper diagnosis, we explain the anatomy and our reasoning behind the root cause of your problem. After discussing all available treatment options and choices with you, a customized treatment plan is provided with the most appropriate combination of therapies tailored to your particular individual case. Treatments are available for all types of causes of neck pain, from poor posture to ‘computer neck’, to traumatic car wrecks and sporting injuries.