Do You Have Text Neck?

Text Neck – When your phone is a text neck painpain in the neck!

Text Neck is a recently new term that has been published in health related news.

Text Neck refers to the damage and pain caused by frequently looking down at our modern technology such as cell phones or tablets. We find that adolescents and teenagers are at risk, not only due to the amount of texting but the frequent videos they watch and gaming.

Obviously, texting is not the only activity that causes someone to continually look down, affecting their neck posture. Yet texting, gaming and video’s have become so prevalent we spend much longer periods of time than we used too with our heads bent forward. This creates a special concern for children and their developing spines, potentially causing permanent damage to the cervical spine and result in life-long pain and earlier arthritis!

Text Neck Symptoms

The most common symptom of text neck is soreness or pain in the neck. However, the continuous head bent forward position can lead to other symptoms such as:

  • Headaches in the back of the skull
  • Pain between the shoulder blades or upper back
  • Shoulder joint pain
  • Pain or numbness down the arms. This happens if the spinal bones or vertebrae misalign and pinch on nerve roots exiting the spine.

Treating Text Neck

Prevention

The key to “treating” text neck is actually prevention! Some key points to help in preventing text neck include:

  • Hold your phone or other devices UP, closer to eye level. You want to prevent bending your head forward and looking down.
  • Take a break! Don’t spend continuous hours on your phone, tablet or laptop with your head bend forward. Schedule time to take a break and stretch. Set a timer if you have to.
  • Exercise. There are some simple exercises you can do while sitting at your desk. Visit our Fit While You Sit page and view these simple exercises

Rehab & Strengthening

Next, proper treatment and strengthening are important.

Unfortunately, for many people, their text neck issue has gone beyond just a postural and muscle issue and now it has affected the alignment of the cervical vertebra. Because the abnormal posture has been present for so long, the ligaments have stretched and adapted to the poor posture allowing the vertebra to lose their normal alignment and flexibility.  At this stage, changing the posture habits and simple exercise is not enough. Proper chiropractic care is necessary.

Chiropractic And Text Neck

Chiropractic care is one of the most effective treatments for text neck. The main form of treatment is an adjustment or manipulation. The purpose is to restore the flexibility and alignment of the spinal bones, thus taking pressure off the joints and nerves, reducing the inflammation and pain.

Besides the adjustments, specific exercises are given to balance the muscles of the neck and upper back.

If you are experiencing neck pain, spend a lot of time looking forward or think you are suffering from text neck, call our office at (314) 731-4383 to schedule an appointment. On your mobile? CLICK TO CALL

Dr. Schmaltz has years of experience treating neck issues such as text neck and has helped many people find relief.