How Do You Know If a Neck Injury Is Serious?

Your neck takes a beating each time you move it in strenuous positions when working or attacked during sports. It also suffers considerable pain after an accident or incident that forces its tissues out of their usual place.

Neck injuries are common, according to statistics from Practical Pain Management. Over 30 percent of adults in America get treated for neck injuries yearly. Among them, 50 percent will have lingering or recurrent neck pain. Around 20 to 70 percent of these adults will suffer neck pain that interferes with their daily routine at some point in their lives.

With neck injuries, it is best to watch for indications of a serious injury that will not go away with time.

Signs of a Neck Injury

Many folks experience mild neck pain. Sitting postures at the workplace and physical stress can cause neck pain. But the pain resolves with rest or time.

You may experience:

• Neck pain

• Swelling and soreness

• Headaches

• Dizziness

When Should You Be Worried About a Neck Injury?

You should worry if your neck injury is causing extreme or lingering pain. With severe neck injuries, the pain is severe, signaling something more serious like spinal cord injury. A severe neck injury will feel like:

• Numbing neck pain and stiffness

• Pain when you turn your head or neck

• Debilitating pain in your shoulders or down your arms

• Aching discomfort in the back of your head

• Muscle stiffness and spasms in your neck or shoulders

• Muscle weakness in your hands, arms, fingers, or legs

• Reduced sensation in the legs or arms

• Increased exhaustion, difficulty concentrating or sleeping

What to Do When a Neck Injury Is Serious

You need to seek medical help right away. Your doctor will diagnose your pain based on your medical history, symptoms, and results from a physical exam. Then, they will recommend suitable therapies to help with your neck pain.

Treatment

Treatment for a neck injury can be nonsurgical or surgical. Your doctor will determine the most suitable treatment for you based on the pain’s location and cause.

Nonsurgical Cures

While neck pain can be quite excruciating and incapacitating, nonsurgical treatment can relieve the symptoms.

Your doctor may prescribe pain relief medications to alleviate the pain or swelling. You may also need muscle tranquilizers to allow your injured neck tissues time to heal.

Additionally, you may need to reduce your physical activities and do physical exercises that will help improve your symptoms. You may need to wear a cervical collar to help support your cervical spine and reduce pain and irritation.

Other treatments include trigger point injections that temporarily soothe pain and chiropractic care. Chiropractic care uses massage therapy, neck traction, ultrasound therapy, and therapeutic exercises to treat pain from neck injuries.

Surgical Treatment

If medications, physical therapy, and chiropractic care fail to work, you may need to undergo surgery.

There are various surgical procedures your surgeon can use. In many cases, surgeons perform a spinal fusion. But in some cases, they can use spinal decompression or spinal disc replacement. The details of your case will determine the surgical procedure your surgeon will choose.

To learn more about knowing if a neck injury is serious, call Brookdale Health at (763) 561-4045 to reach our Brooklyn Center, Minnesota office.