TEXT NECK SYNDROME

TEXT NECK SYNDROME - Text Neck is an overuse syndrome or a repetitive stress injury to the neck caused by holding your head in a forward and downward position for extended periods of time. When holding your head in this position, excessive amounts of tension are created in the deep muscles of your neck and across the shoulders causing both acute and chronic neck pain. Chronic headaches have also been linked to this condition.Text neck is the term used to describe the neck pain and damage sustained from looking down at your cell phone, tablet, or other wireless devices too frequently and for too long. Text neck most commonly causes neck pain and soreness. In addition, looking down at your cell phone too much each day can lead to:

• Upper back pain ranging from a chronic, nagging pain to sharp, severe upper back muscle spasms.
• Shoulder pain and tightness, possibly resulting in painful shoulder muscle spasm.
• If a cervical nerve becomes pinched, pain and possibly neurological symptoms can radiate down your arm and into your hand.

A recent study shows that 79% of the population between the ages 18 and 44 have their cell phones with them almost all the time—with only 2 hours of their waking day spent without their cell phone on hand.

SPINAL INSTABILITY

SPINAL INSTABILITY - Spinal Instability is a term coined to describe abnormal movement between one vertebra and another. As a disc degenerates it loses tension or ‘turgor’ which allows the disc to bulge and permits increasing movements to take place between the vertebrae. The loss of disc height causes the facet joints to displace and override beyond their correct congruent alignment. This overriding and abnormal slipping of the facet joints induces arthritic overgrowth of the joints and the production of bone spurs around the joint margins.

Abnormal sliding between vertebrae may occur during flexion, lifting or extension and cause pain. This produces significant back pain, attended by a ‘catch’ sign where the patient is suddenly startled by a stabbing pain. This usually occurs when the sufferer is halfway through getting out of a chair and standing upright. It is often associated with a spasm and sometimes locking up of the back.

The pain is caused when movement such as flexion or extension causes the vertebrae to slide forward and backward or rotate abnormally. This directly irritates the nerve which has become tethered to the disc, vertebra, facet joint margin and ligaments in the foramen. Since the nerve cannot move freely to accommodate these abnormal movements, it becomes irritated causing back and/or leg pain. The abnormal movements cause arthritic overgrowth of the joints and bone spurs to develop. The ‘catch’ occurs when the facet joint bone spurs dig into the nerve.