"Help, I can’t move my neck!” Meniscoid Entrapment – Neck Pain in Portland OR
There are a bunch of reasons that you might feel pain in the neck in Portland OR. Some of these are common, like tight muscles, car accidents, and joint dysfunction. Some of these are more rare, like stenosis and disc herniations. And then way out in left field, we have things like meniscoid entrapment. And the first time it walks into your clinic, you don’t forget it.
The anatomy in question is essentially a flap on the edge of the joint capsule surrounding the facet joints in your neck. The facet joints are essentially a series of interlocking hands that project up from the top of a neck vertebrae and down from the bottom. You have five pairs of facet joints within the cervical spine, for a total of 10.
As you turn your neck, one side experiences a gapping of the joint and the other side experiences a pinching. Every once in a great while, that little piece of the capsule will invaginate within the joint and become stuck; pinched between the faces of the facet. I mostly find that this occurs during sleep, when the neck is both twisted and flexed, and then the patient wakes up and tries to pull their head back into a neutral position.
When your body senses that there’s a problem, your muscles will usually clamp down, become hypertonic, or go into full on muscle spasms. Your neck essentially tries to lock itself up for protection. That can make it very hard to resolve the problem. It also results in intense pain. You will often find it nearly impossible to move your neck beyond the bare minimum, and especially into extension or away from the affected side. The longer your neck is in this state, the worst that it gets, as inflammation builds up and the cascade of problems increases.
Chiropractic care for this kind of neck pain in Portland OR is likely the best tool we have
Very often, one patient, specific adjustment to the affected joint can resolve the situation. Especially effective if it can be done with some degree of traction to gap that space a bit further. Although, the muscles around it and the inflammation will often take a day or two to recover. But there are very few modalities that we have, and only a couple that are not invasive, to fully and effectively return your neck to a normal state.
If you wake up or move your head quickly, and all of a sudden you have a tremendous amount of neck pain, and your neck feels locked up, there is no shame in going to an urgent care to see if you can cut the symptoms down and relax the neck, muscles, if it’s outside of normal business hours. But the best, most cost-effective, and safest route to tackle this problem as likely to visit your local Chiropractor.
if it’s outside of normal business hours. But the best, most cost-effective, and safest route to tackle this problem as likely to visit your local Chiropractor. if it’s outside of normal business hours. But the best, most cost-effective, and safest route to tackle this problem as likely to visit your local Chiropractor.
If you are in the Portland, Oregon or Washington County Oregon area and think this may be happening to you, please give us a call at your closest clinic, let us know what’s going on with you, and we will fit you in as soon as possible. It’s the kind of problem that we often see people missing days of work for, if it’s not treated right away.
