Introduction

The cervical spine has to support the weight of the human head (approx. 5kg) and also has muscle attachments that affect the shoulder and upper back function. The nerves that exit the neck from the spinal cord supply the skull, neck, upper back, shoulder blade, pectoral region, arms and hands.

Meaning that there are many pains or injuries that the neck can contribute to, whilst also being the source of the pain. Joints, discs, nerves, ligaments, tendons and muscles can all be sources of your pain in the neck.

The complexity of the neck requires in depth knowledge to treat but also to prevent neck pain. This may require an ergonomic assessment of your posture, work place or dynamic performance of your sport that may be contributing to your pain.

Diagnosis

Neck pain and back pain are the most commonly treated injuries in most Physio Clinics.

With sedentary lifestyles and workplaces combined with computer use, it is a perfect storm for neck and back pain to occur.

Even though these pains can be quite debilitating and cause a sufferer to be in quite a significant degree of discomfort. Almost always, they are very simple to treat and immediate relief can be obtained with quality Physio management.

The theme of an accurate and early diagnosis runs strongly through this website as it is a point of difference to other clinics and the key to high quality management that resolves the issue swiftly. Most importantly, avoids the chronic pain cycle and enables effective prevention of the injury.

For you, your expectation in an Initial Consultation is subjective examination (discussion on the injury, what you’re experiencing and how it came about), then an objective examination (the physical assessment of your injury and body).

These are both combined to determine the diagnosis, which is then explained to you and then treatment will then be undertaken.

Treatment

Treatment is completely varied for each condition and each pathology. The treatment is always very hands on and may consist of mobilisations, massage, soft tissue release, active exercises.  This will be combined with Physio specific techniques that enable more normal movement patterns and also less pain for you.

After re-assessing your injury post treatment and demonstrating the efficacy of treatment, your management program will be explained to you.

This will allow you to have full knowledge of the injury, the prognosis (how long you should expect until full recovery), the treatment plan and self management strategies in the mean time.