Pain-relieving medicine – acetaminophen (sample brand name: Panadol) or an Anti-Inflammatory (NSAID) such as ibuprofen (sample brand names: Brufen) or naproxen (sample brand names: Proxen).
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.
Physiotherapy
- Invariably patients presenting with neck pain will be offered physiotherapy. The exploration of physical therapy and therapeutic exercise under the advice and supervision of a physiotherapist is a mainstay of non-surgical treatment of degenerative spinal disorders.
Xray Guided Therapeutic Cervical Spinal Injections.
- These X-ray guided injections are often effective in relieving a patient's severe mechanical neck 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.
Occipital Nerve Blocks
- Local anesthetic based injection to treat radiating occipital headache often accompanying severe neck pain
What treatments are not helpful?
- The wearing of neck collars, especially for long periods of time. If a collar has been found to help with the pain, patient are advised to limit use if possible to less than 3 hour per day. Wearing a neck collar for too long can potentially weakness the muscles.
Surgery
- A variety of surgical interventions are available for the treatment of neck pain. However surgical procedures for neck pain e.g. cervical fusion procedures are only indicated if the pain is refractory to reasonable nonsurgical treatments.
