Top 4 Symptoms Your Stiff Neck May Be Causing

Many Australians are silently suffering the painful effects from a stiff neck without understanding that they can do something about it.  Read more about how to get rid of neck pain with a Physio here. If you have a stiff neck, it may be causing you a variety of symptoms other than neck pain, these can include one or more of the following:

• Headaches
• Arm Pain
• Pins and needles in your arm and/or hand
• Face and Jaw Pain
• Sinus Pain

Stiff Necks Cause Headaches

Headaches are a very common symptom of neck stiffness, often mentioned in unison, with the presence of the former usually indicating the presence of the latter.

When you have a stiff neck, the upper neck joints are usually rigid and can refer pain through your nerves to your head – causing headaches and neck-related migraines. These headaches are likely triggered when your stiff neck irritates, strains, or compresses the nerves in your neck.

Poor posture and ergonomics, weak and poorly controlled neck and upper back muscles, inflammation in the neck joints or soft tissue strain can all lead to headaches. 

At City Physio Adelaide we can identify, through thorough assessment, which specific areas are contributing to your headaches and target our treatment to those specific regions or dysfunctions to alleviate your stiff neck, and in turn, your headache pain.

Stiff Necks Cause Arm Pain

Stiff necks can cause many types of pain, including arm pain. Arm pain, in the presence of a stiff neck, may stem from a dysfunction in your neck joint occurring when nerves that come out of the bony gap between your neck joints (cervical spine) are compromised. 

The neck joints may have degenerative changes, be stiff, have bony spurs, a disc bulge or disc degeneration in the neck (cervical discs) or inflammation of surrounding soft tissues or joints; any one or more of these issues in your neck can lead to arm pain.

Tight neck and shoulder muscles (muscle tension) can create tender trigger points in the muscles of the neck and shoulders which can lead to arm pain. Trigger points develop from an overuse of specific neck muscles or from underuse or weakness of other deeper neck muscles, specifically your postural muscles. These weak muscles become lengthened which perpetuates a muscle imbalance scenario.

Some of the more common muscles near your neck that can lead to arm pain are the rotator cuff muscles – supraspinatus, infraspinatus, subscapularis, and teres major, other muscles can also contribute to arm pain including the right trapezius, pectorals, latissimus dorsi, serratus anterior and deltoid.

Your City Physiotherapy Adelaide physiotherapist will target their treatment to ensure thorough management of pain.

Stiff Necks Cause Pins And Needles In Your Arms and Hands

Pins and needles in your hand and arm are always due to nerve involvement. A “pinched nerve” occurs when a nerve in the neck is compressed or irritated, although this may cause pain, it can also cause muscle weakness and numbness, with the corresponding symptoms of pins and needles in the arms and hands.

With pins and needles or numbness it is important to seek advice and treatment as soon as possible to avoid the nerves being compromised. Bulging neck discs are often implicated in pins and needles or numbness in the arms or hands.

At City Physio we target our treatment to alleviate your nerve symptoms and take pressure off the nerves.  This will most likely involve a combination of manual therapies aimed at nerve gliding and movement, joint mobilisation for your stiff neck, soft tissue release, posture, and activity modification as well as exercise.

Stiff Necks Cause Face, Jaw and Sinus Pain

As mentioned above, stiff necks cause a variety of types of pain. The types of pain stiff necks or neck muscle trigger points cause include face pain, jaw pain and sinus pain. The muscles of your head, jaw, face, the front of your neck and your upper trapezius muscles are commonly involved in sinus, jaw or face pain. 

Sometimes these trigger points and/or stiff neck joints can also lead to ear pain or sensation of loss of hearing. Clenching the teeth or grinding the teeth (bruxism) can lead to pain from overuse of these muscles. Often the teeth clenching and teeth grinding occurs subconsciously or during sleep. Tension in these trigger points can refer into the face around the nose and cheeks – the sinus area – producing pain similar to sinusitis.

At City Physiotherapy we use a variety of manual therapy treatments to address the overuse issues in the neck, face, jaw and head muscles. We directly treat the TMJ (temporomandibular joint) dysfunction with manual therapies.  

Book an appointment today!

City Physiotherapy & Sports Injury Clinic is conveniently located in the heart of the Adelaide CBD on King William Street, for almost 30 years we’ve been providing physiotherapy to the residents of Adelaide and have served over 30,000 people. 

If you have any neck or other symptoms mentioned in this blog, our advice is to seek a physiotherapy assessment with one of our therapists to help get your pain and symptoms back under control, call our friendly reception on 8212 4886, or click the book online button below for a same-day appointment.

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