Everyday activities and athletic injuries can damage soft tissues and cause muscle pain in your neck. Over the years, degeneration takes a toll on the discs and vertebrae.

Among the most common problems that cause neck pain are:

• Whiplash
• Herniated discs
• Facet joint arthritis
• Degenerative disc disease
• Bone spurs
• Spinal stenosis
• Failed spine surgery syndrome

The neck pain caused by many of these conditions is often brought about by pinched spinal nerves.

Whiplash happens when a sudden impact to your head or body forces your neck into a rapid back-and-forth movement. A whiplash injury damages muscles, nerves, and the facet joints in the vertebrae.

Facet joint injuries often go undetected at first. Patients then go on to develop facet joint problems, like arthritis or degenerative disc problems.

A whiplash injury can cause immediate pain that gets better but then returns. Or you could suffer delayed symptoms that don’t appear for a few days.

The problems responsible for neck pain often cause a stiff neck and minor to severe headaches. Pinched nerves result in pain, tingling, and numbness that usually first shows up in your neck and then travels into your arm and hand.

A severely damaged nerve can weaken the muscles in your arms and hands. Pinched nerves in your neck can also cause weak legs and loss of bowel and bladder control.

Leg, bowel, and bladder symptoms suggest a serious problem that needs immediate medical attention. When they appear, the team at Pain Care Boise does an MRI to rule out other possible causes, like a tumor or infection.

The initial treatments for neck pain often include a brace to immobilize your neck, pain medications (either over-the-counter or prescription), and exercises or physical therapy. If you still have neck pain after these standard treatments, it’s time to meet the team at Pain Care Boise.

As specialists in interventional and regenerative medicine, they provide today’s most effective and advanced neck pain treatments. Their therapies ease your pain by getting to the true source of the problem.

For example, you might need an injection that does away with nerve inflammation or one of many possible treatments that stop nerves from sending pain messages to your brain.

These are a few examples of the treatments Pain Care Boise often uses to ease neck pain:

• Epidural steroid injections
• Trigger point injections
• Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections
• Stem cell therapy injections
• Facet joint injections
• Medial branch block
• Spinal cord stimulation
• Radiofrequency nerve ablation

These are all minimally invasive procedures guided by real-time ultrasound and fluoroscopic (X-ray) imagery to ensure precise results.

You can get relief from neck pain at Pain Care Boise. Book an appointment online today or call the office.