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The Evolution of Neck Pain | Physical Therapy is an Option

technology’s impact on cervical pain

There has been a significant increase in debilitating neck pain with the expanded use of computers and technology, specifically smart phones. This modern spine ailment is so prevalent it has a term: text neck. Text neck describes neck pain and damage sustained from looking down at a cell phone, tablet, or other wireless devices too frequently and for too long. Statistics say that up to 79% of the population between the ages of 18-44 have their cell phones with them at all times, with only 2 hours out of the day spent without their devices.

The most common symptoms of text neck include:

  • Upper back pain ranging (this can be chronic pain and include severe upper back muscle spasms.)
  • Shoulder pain, tightness and limited ROM
  • Pinched cervical nerves that can create radiating neurological symptoms
  • Rounded posture with forward head
  • Weakened, atrophied muscles resulting in the inability to maintain neutral posture
This upsurge in neck pain has created a greater need for non-invasive rehabilitation modalities to counteract these symptoms.

Physical Therapy Modalities to Treat Cervical Pain

  1. Cold Compression Therapy: Cold compression therapy devices come with a neck wrap to treat the cervical area. Cold compression is a good choice for the pain relieving benefits of cold therapy along with the inflammation reducing advantage of compression which can reduce any compression on the cervical nerves.
  2. prohealthcareproducts.com
    Heat Therapy: Heat therapy can be used to lower pain while also reducing tension in stiff and tight muscles that may be the cause of nerve impingement. Heat therapy can be used as a contrast therapy to cold compression therapy to maximize therapeutic benefits including: reduction in pain and inflammation, release of tight muscles and increase in movement. Moist heating units hot packs are the best treatment, specifically the cervical heating packs featured here.
  3. Traction table: Traction can be used to treat different causes of neck pain. Traction tables gently stretch the cervical area which can help relieve neck muscle spasms. This stretching also creates space between the vertebrae of the spine which can help reduce pain between the disks and free pinched or compressed nerves.
  4. Therapeutic Exercise: Poor posture from cervical pain can include: a forward head, rounded shoulders, shortened pectoral muscles and core weakness. Therapeutic exercise that includes gentle stretching and strengthening can not only help improve posture, but help decrease pain and nerve impingement.
  5. Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS): A promising study found that TENS is beneficial in treating acute neck pain. The plus side to TENS units, is there are portable devices that can be used by patients for home use. Combination therapy combining both TENS and therapeutic ultrasound has been found to be beneficial in reducing myofascial trigger point pain in the cervical area.

Additional Benefits of Physical Therapy for the Treatment of Text Neck

A physical therapist can advise patients as to proper body mechanics for working with electrical devices and provide patient education as to stretches and exercises that can be done at work and home to prevent more occurrences of neck pain.
New devices seem to come out monthly and our reliance on our technical devices only seems to increase. Due to this, incidences of text neck will only increase as well as the need to have modalities to combat its debilitating symptoms.

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