• Short courses of Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medicines, like ibuprofen  / naproxen and simple muscle relaxants may benefit patient and facilitate participation in physical therapy.

Physiotherapy

• A physical therapist can teach you stretching and strengthening exercises that may ease symptoms.

• Apply ice on the area to reduce pain – A cold gel pack, or bag of ice or frozen vegetable. Do this for 15 minutes at a time, a few times a day. Use a towel between the cold object and your skin to prevent skin damage.
• Apply heat on the area to reduce pain and stiffness – Take a hot shower or hot bath, or put a hot towel or heating pad 'on low' on the area. Apply heat for 15 minutes at a time. Don't use anything too hot that could burn your skin.

X-ray Guided Therapeutic Cervical Spinal Injections

• These X-ray guided injections are often effective in relieving a patient's severe mechanical neck pain.  Directed at the underlying arthritic Cervical Spine joint s and source of the pain. They do not resolve the underlying degeneration but can be very helpful.

Trigger Point injections

• These simple injections, performed in the outpatient's clinic treatment room, are very useful in the management of persistent and severe muscle pain.

Surgery

• In most cases, surgery is not needed. However if there are significant neurological symptoms or any progressive neurological dysfunction surgery is likely to be recommended to relieve pressure on the spinal cord or the nerves leaving your spine. A decompression of the areas of nerve / spinal compression is performed with bony fixation / fusion as required depending on the individual mechanics of the patient's cervical spine.

Prevention

• Stay physically active
• Maintain good posture
• Avoid trauma to your neck
• Address and treat problems effectively as they arise