Chances are we all either know someone who has chronic neck aches or pain or we have it ourselves. There are a number of different things you can do for neck pain, but there are so many conflicting things you hear on the internet about what to do. Listed below are the top 5 frequently asked questions we, as physical therapists, get asked the most.

Should I get an MRI for my neck?
- An MRI is an incredibly useful tool to rule out major injuries that may be causing your neck pain. However, MRI results rarely factor into the decision making process when putting together a plan to fix your neck pain in physical therapy. In fact, they can often be misleading. The MOST important tests to find out what is causing your neck pain and putting together a plan to fix it happen on/during the evaluation in physical therapy. Depending upon your age, chances are better than 50-50 that if you go for a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), some abnormality will be revealed. I have 2 herniated/bulging discs in my cervical spine and I almost never have neck pain…. Because I know what to do to make sure these structural defects don’t slow me down.

I have pain in my neck that goes down my arm… what does that mean?
- This means that you likely have pressure on your median, ulnar, or radial nerve. Even light pressure from inflammation, disc bulging or herniation, tight muscles, poor posture and other reasons. Pain down your arm does not mean you have nerve damage. It just means you need to find out what is putting pressure on that nerve as fast as possible so you can remove that pressure.

What exercises should I do to get rid of my neck pain?
- That all depends on the cause of your neck pain. This is discovered during a free screen or an initial evaluation at Robbins Rehabilitation West. Some exercises might help and some might make it worse. Most neck pain sufferers either have a disc problem, weakness and tightness due to poor posture, or spinal stenosis. Sometimes you can have a combination of these…The point is that it’s difficult to give exercises to help unless we know exactly what is causing the pain. A complete exam is required so that the exercises actually help with the pain.

What will happen if I don’t do something to get rid of my neck pain?
- The problem will likely get worse. Depending on what is causing your neck pain, it may come and go. Sometimes you might be fine for a few weeks or even months, but if you don’t fix the movement faults that are causing your neck pain, you will have a hard time getting rid of it for good and it could one day turn into a more serious problem.

Should I take medication or get surgery for my neck pain?
- These are common treatments for neck pain unfortunately. By now you probably know about the opioid crisis in our country. About 130 Americans die every day from drug overdoses related to prescription pain medication. That means that in a year’s time, almost as many people in this country will die from opioid addiction as soldiers killed in the entire Vietnam war. Surgery is an amazing tool in the right situation but it should be used as a last resort when it comes to most neck pain. You should consider surgery only after conservative care has failed.