Surprising Causes of Neck Pain

Dr. Leah Nyaletey, DC • March 26, 2021


Jaw Pain Related to Neck Pain

Sometimes neck pain can correlate with jaw pain. Have you noticed that your jaw pops or clicks when you’re chewing, yawning or even talking? Do you experience jaw pain or tightness during or after a routine dental visit? Did you know that chiropractic can help reduce jaw pain? Your jaw has a joint on both sides of your face, which can get misaligned through physical traumas such as sports injuries or car accidents, or in the form of chemical traumas from emotional or mental stress. These traumas can cause a condition called TMD or temporal mandibular dysfunction. Your chiropractor will first assess the cause of your TMD. Most cases of TMD respond well to conservative chiropractic care. Your chiropractor can adjust your jaw, just like the bones in your spine, either by hand or with an instrument.

You may be wondering; how can I prevent jaw pain? One of the things you can do is to avoid chewing gum for long periods of time. Chewing gum can exacerbate problems with misaligned jaw bones and create more stress in the muscles and ligaments attached to the jaw. Another thing you can do is to avoid resting your chin on your hand for extended periods of time. This can put pressure on the joints of the jaw and further misalign the jaw. If you grind your teeth at night, consider using a night guard. When chewing food, make sure to chew evenly on both sides of your mouth and not favor one side or the other. Consider visiting your dentist or orthodontist if your teeth don’t align when you close your mouth. This can create an imbalance in the muscles of the jaw which contributes to the TMD. Massaging the muscles of the jaw can also bring you some pain relief. There are also a set of exercises that you can do to help strengthen and reset the muscles that control the jaw, which your chiropractor can recommend for you.

Watch the video below to see how to check your own jaw for misalignment.  



Cervical Curves

 

Why are we chiropractors always talking about the curves in your spine? Proper spinal curves are really important for proper alignment of the spine, which leads to proper nerve function. These curves also act as shock absorbers and provide balance and support for the body. Why is spinal alignment and nerve function important? Your nervous system controls every function in your body. If your spinal bones are misaligned it irritates the nerves that control many functions in your body. For instance, if your spine is misaligned in the lower neck you might experience pain, numbness, tingling, and/or muscle weakness into your arms and hands. The same thing can happen in your lower spine and you might experience pain, numbness, tingling, and/or muscle weakness into your legs and feet. In order to assess your spinal curves we take x-rays of your spine to be able to visualize the curves from the front and from the side.

 


Why do I need to go to a chiropractor when I can just crack my own neck? When you “crack” your own neck you are actually over-stretching the ligaments in your neck and making mobile segments even more mobile, which creates instability in your spine. Over time, this cracking can cause further damage to your spine and overall health. Chiropractors are professionals who are trained to assess the spine and entire body to find misalignments in the spine as well as other joints, and deliver specific adjustments to the segments that are locked up and not moving properly. By freeing up the segments that are locked up, this releases the pressure on the nerves, which improves their function and reduces your pain. By the way, that “crack” that you sometimes hear is just a bit of gas escaping from the joint space.


 

Check out our video below to learn more about spinal curves.




Now you know that there is something you can do about that annoying jaw pain and it doesn’t involve medication or surgery and the reasoning why you shouldn’t crack your own neck.

 


If you’ve been dealing with neck or jaw pain for a while now and would like to speak with one of our doctors about it, click here to find a time that works for you or give us a call at 802-899-9991.

A Family Centered Practice

By Dr. Leah Nyaletey DC • February 24, 2022
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Better Sleep and Fewer Headaches

By Dr. Leah Nyaletey, DC • March 26, 2021
Tech Neck Most smartphones now come with software that keeps track of how many hours per day and per week you’re spending on your smart device. How many hours are you spending on your smart device? Tech companies want you to be constantly on your smartphone and always trying to catch your attention and they are really good at achieving this. If you find yourself spending too much time on your device, try turning it off for a few hours and going outside instead. Fresh air and sunshine can do wonders to improve your health and overall sense of well-being. Have you noticed that after a while of mindlessly scrolling that your posture is worse than when you first started that scrolling session? Over time your head translates forward which puts more tension and stress on the bones in your neck and can speed up spinal degeneration. That same forward head posture can put tension in the muscles that support the neck creating knots that cause you pain. As you're scrolling through your day be mindful of your posture. Try to always make sure that your smart device is at or close to eye level. Sit up straight and bring your shoulders back and down. If you notice your child’s posture looking less than superb, try making a game out of who can keep the best posture for the longest. As for the knots that have built up in your neck and shoulder muscles, we have a helpful and easy way to loosen those up. Take a tennis ball and a hard surface, preferably the floor or a wall if you can’t get down on the floor easily. Place the tennis ball on the muscle knot. Now lay back onto the tennis ball and stay on that knot until it melts away. Keep doing this and moving around to release different knots in your muscles. The muscle tension will keep coming back until your chiropractor fixes the misalignments in your spine, which will improve your posture over time. Make an appointment with one of our chiropractors today. Your future self will thank you!

Preventing Neck Pain

By Dr. Leah Nyaletey, DC • March 26, 2021
How To Prevent Neck Pain While Working From Home This year one in four Americans are expected to be working from home. When moving your place of work from an outside office to an in-home office, many people forget to think about their home office ergonomics. This can lead to poor posture for 8 hours per day for 5 days per week. Over time this adds stress to your spine increasing tension, stiffness, pain, and promotes spinal degeneration. Here are five things that you can do to improve your home office set-up. 1) Bring your monitor to eye level. If you’re working on a laptop, consider purchasing a monitor and keyboard and connect it to your laptop. By separating the keyboard from the monitor, this allows for proper ergonomics. 2) Consider purchasing an office chair with adjusting armrests. You want to make sure your shoulders are not up near your ears and not hanging down unsupported. 3) Make sure that your feet touch flat on the floor and your knees are bent to 90 degrees. 4) Your bottom should be as far back as possible, and your back should be resting against the chair back. This takes the pressure off of your low back. 5) Your elbows should be bent to 90 degrees so make sure your keyboard is not too high and not too low. Sitting has been dubbed the new smoking, so besides improving your home office ergonomics you also want to make sure that you are getting up out of your chair and moving around often during your workday. This will improve blood flow from your upper body to your lower body and from your lower body to your upper body. Adding in a few exercises and stretches during your workday will help to improve your posture, decrease your joint and muscle stiffness, and reduce your body aches.

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