Conservative Treatment
Depending on the type of pain and the diagnosis you receive, many conservative treatments are available for these conditions.
In many cases, patients improve their symptoms by performing stretching exercises. This is not only true in the case of cervical pain but also in scapular pain and back pain. Stretching mainly works in musculoskeletal disease, when muscle tension is one of the triggers of neck pain. Studies show that it provides intermediate-term relief of mechanical neck pain. Thus, the relief of the symptoms may not be immediate. But if you keep doing it, the results will be more noticeable after a while. Even patients with radiculopathy may benefit from a combination of physical therapy based on stretching and using a cervical collar.
The most popular conservative treatment for neck pain is oral therapy with over-the-counter medications. The most common is systemic non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). They do not have many clinical studies but are known to be beneficial. Acetaminophen is recommended as a first-line treatment to avoid side effects, and when it doesn’t work, we can use NSAIDs.
Another type of oral treatment for neck pain includes muscle relaxants such as cyclobenzaprine. When neck pain is associated with muscle spasms, these treatments have to be included for a better outcome. It works better in acute pain, but chronic pain patients may also explore them as an option. According to studies, low doses of muscle relaxants have the same effect as intermediate and high doses. Thus, we don’t need a high dose to find better relief.