Causes and Treatments of Pinched Nerves in the neck
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Your doctor has told you that the pain you are experiencing is from a pinched nerve in the neck. He has sent you home with anti-inflammatory medications and a list of instructions but you still do not know how the pinched nerve neck happened, why it hurts so much and what you can do to prevent it from happening again.
A pinched nerve in the neck can be quite painful, not only can it cause pain and muscle spasms at the site, but it can also cause pain that radiates to your shoulder, arm, hand and even head. Anybody that has had a pinched nerve in their neck can tell you it is a miserable experience that makes it difficult to work or sleep.
A pinched nerve neck can be the cause of a few different conditions with the most common one being a herniated or compressed disc in your spine. The discs are the cushions between your vertebrae and if one of them gets compressed or pushed out of place either by an injury or just wear and tear, it can cause a nerve to be pinched in that area.
The type of doctor you go to and what sort of tests you have done will be the determining factor in the treatment that you will received for your neck and pinched . Depending on the damage, treatments can range from anti-inflammatory medications and ice to surgery and many things in between. Chiropractors can work to adjust a vertebra that is misaligned, helping the disc move back in place, and taking the pressure off the nerve. Often times this sort of treatment along with ice is all that is necessary to treat a pinched nerve in the neck.
If you go to an orthopedic doctor he may recommend an MRI to see how extensive the damage in your neck is. New treatments are available for disc damage and nerve problems where an injection of steroids is made directly into the spine this decreases the swelling in the spine of nerves and soft tissues and in most cases takes the pressure off of the nerve and relieves symptoms.
Sometimes the damage to the disc is severe enough that surgery is necessary, this is sometimes the case if there is a compression fracture or the disc has been ruptured. In this case doctors will fuse two of the vertebrae together to keep them from putting pressure on the nerve that was pinched in your neck. Surgery is usually a last resort and most other treatments will be tried first.