Chronic neck pain often frustrates patients due to the limited options available. Pain medication may work, but it has side effects that can make it hard to think and can cause other physical problems. Surgery is sometimes an option, but it's risky and may not provide relief. Chiropractic treatment can help, but sometimes, it doesn't fully relieve the pain either.
What is there to do?
A new treatment, known as spinal decompression, has provided great results for many people. Like chiropractic treatment, it doesn't involve surgery, pain medication, injections, or harmful side effects. It, however, goes beyond conservative chiropractic treatments in providing relief.
The basic premise behind spinal decompression treatment is that the chronic pain is caused by the excessive compression of the discs in the neck and back rather than their misalignment. Therefore, the treatment is aimed at relieving this pressure. This new focus is what allows it to provide relief even where traditional chiropractic treatments fail.
Spinal decompression typically requires several sessions, but patients report improvement before they are all complete. This shows that it's working, but it's important to get all of the recommended treatments for full relief. Most patients report that even severe pain drops to little or none after they finish their series of decompression treatments.
While this is a great new treatment option, it's important to note that not all patients require it. Therefore, spinal decompression clinics often offer other types of treatment as well. Most commonly, standard chiropractic treatment will be an option, and it is used for cases that are caused by problems other than spinal compression.
Since excess weight is often a contributing factor to spinal compression and other back-related difficulties, a clinic for treating neck pain San Mateo also offers advanced weight-loss methods as well as pain treatments. Losing weight lessens the downward pull on the body, and therefore, reduces the pressure that causes spinal compression. Of course, weight loss also makes things easier on the back and neck muscles as well as helping to improve overall mobility.
When a patient comes to a spinal decompression clinic for neck pain treatment, the first step will be a physical evaluation. This will determine which treatments will work best for the patient's specific case and allow the doctors to determine details such as how many sessions will be needed. Once this is done, treatments will be scheduled and the patient will be on the road to a pain-free life.
