How to Treat a Neck Sprain

Video Transcript

"Hi I'm Dr. David Hill and today we are going to be talking about how to treat a neck sprain. Now the first and most important thing about treating a neck sprain is to know for sure that what you are dealing with is a sprain or a muscle spasm and not a fracture on one of the vertebrae. This is an incredibly important part of the body and if there's any doubt about what's going on, if there's pain that is unexplained you really want a doctor to get a look at you. Your doctor will be able to test range of motion of the neck, feel for where the pain is, check the nerves and the rest of the body and make sure they are unaffected. And possibly order x-rays or a CT scan to make sure that we are confident of the diagnosis. The last thing you want to do is run around with a fracture of one of the vertebrae treating it like a neck sprain. If at some point you compress the nerves it could lead to paralysis or even death. Especially if the sprain is sustained as part of a fall, or an athletic competition or some other activity where the head is impacted or moved, be sure and get a professional medical evaluation of that area. Now assuming that you have been diagnosed with a neck sprain, or a muscle spasm which would be damage to the soft tissue not to the bones of the neck. Usually the muscles, ligaments and tendons in this very complex part of the body, the treatment is usually relatively straight forward. It's the same treatment we use for sprains and strains on other parts of the body. You'll probably be advised to apply ice, several times a day for a period of up to two to three weeks while it's healing. You may even be given some exercises or stretches to do to keep the muscles loose, keep them from sort of spasming up and causing worse pain. The good news is that with neck strain and muscle spasm, time is almost always the cure. These things do tend to get better if you just take a conservative approach. Another important thing that you might use is Ibuprofen or Tylenol, often we go with the anti inflammatory class of medications in which Ibuprofen is one member. But you may have other members of that class such as Naproxen for example which is what's in Napresin and Aleve. That would decrease inflammation in the muscles and help you heal, get the pain out of the way faster. So remember if you have pain in your neck, first of all make sure you know what it is and make sure that you are aware it's nothing that could compromise or damage the nerves. Second of all, treatment is conservative, using anti inflammatory medications, cool compresses, stretches and exercises and most importantly time and patience. Talking about treating a neck sprain. I'm Dr. David Hill."