Neck pain and headaches
Your headache doesn’t necessarily start in your head. Pain arising from the upper neck can refer into the back, side or front of the head. This is often referred to as a cervicogenic headache.
Neck pain can be a real nuisance. It can affect your sleep, work, driving, exercise and sometimes just turning your head to have a conversation.
At Optimum Physiotherapy Wodonga, we don’t want to just give you a few exercises and send you on your way.
Book now →There’s been a big move in physiotherapy towards exercise… and exercise is important.
But when somebody comes to us with a stiff, painful neck, we think there’s still enormous value in actually putting our hands on you and assessing what’s happening.
Is one part of your neck particularly stiff? Is your upper back contributing? Are certain muscles working overtime? Is your shoulder blade movement part of the problem? Is there irritation of a nerve?
A good hands-on assessment can tell us a lot.
“It’s not manual therapy OR exercise. Quite often, it’s a combination of the two.”
Hands-on treatment to get you moving. A proper plan to keep you moving.
We want to know when your neck pain started, what makes it worse, what gives you relief and, most importantly, what it’s stopping you from doing.
We’ll look at your neck movement, upper back, shoulders and shoulder blades and, where relevant, your strength, nerves, posture and the way you move. And we’ll use our hands to assess the joints and muscles themselves.
The idea is to get beyond simply saying “you’ve got neck pain.” We want to know why. Once we’ve got a good idea, we’ll explain it to you in normal language and give you a clear management plan.
And unless there’s a reason we shouldn’t, we’ll usually start treatment at that first appointment.
Of course we want to settle your pain. If we can get you moving more freely and feeling better early on, brilliant. But that’s only half the job.
We also want to understand why the problem developed in the first place. Once we understand that, we can work on it.
We don’t want to put a Band-Aid on the problem, get you feeling better for a week and then have you boomeranging back through our door with exactly the same thing.
The aim is a long-term solution wherever possible.
Book now →There isn’t one single cause. Sometimes neck pain starts suddenly — after sleeping awkwardly, lifting something, playing sport or having an accident. Other times it gradually creeps up on you.
Common problems we see include muscular neck pain, stiff or irritated neck joints, postural and desk-related pain, headaches coming from the neck, nerve irritation, referred pain into the shoulder or arm and age-related changes within the neck.
Quite often, there’s more than one thing contributing. That’s why an accurate assessment matters.
Your headache doesn’t necessarily start in your head. Pain arising from the upper neck can refer into the back, side or front of the head. This is often referred to as a cervicogenic headache.
We see this all the time. The human head isn’t designed to sit in a forward position for hours. Prolonged sitting, poor posture and daily habits can all contribute to neck pain and stiffness.
Let’s find out what’s going on and get you on the right track.
Book now →In most cases you can book straight in with us without a referral. If you’re claiming through a funded program, such as workers compensation or a care plan from your GP, you may need paperwork first, so call us and we’ll point you in the right direction.
It depends on what’s causing your pain, how long you’ve had it and what you want to get back to. After your first appointment we’ll explain what we found and give you a realistic idea of what to expect.
Sometimes. Headaches that come from the joints and muscles of the upper neck, often called cervicogenic headaches, can respond well to a hands-on assessment and treatment. We’ll work out whether your neck is contributing.
That’s exactly what we want to work out. If pain keeps returning, there’s usually something underlying, such as stiffness, muscle overload, posture or the way you move. We aim to find it and build a plan that gives you a long-term solution.