The Dangers of Tech Neck



Tech neck, also known as text neck, is a repetitive-use injury that affects the muscles, tendons, ligaments, and nerves in your neck. Of course, you don’t have to be a tech-head to develop a tech neck: Any kind of activity that requires you to bend your head forward for prolonged periods, including reading or sewing, could cause tech neck.

Tech neck may be a silly name, but the condition couldn’t be more serious. Without addressing the habits and causes of tech neck, you could permanently injure your cervical spine (i.e., the thin portion of your spine that runs through your neck). 

If you have neck pain or shoulder pain, Brian Fuller, MD, and our team at Mountain Spine & Pain Physicians in Denver, Colorado, ask you to take it seriously. Here, we lay out why tech neck is a literal pain in the neck and what you can do about it.

Your head “gains weight” as you bend

Most human heads weigh about 10-12 pounds when you’re standing upright with the good posture your parents, teachers, and coaches admonished you to develop. The problem is, if you’re bending your neck to look at a smartphone, other device, or even a musical instrument or book, your head weighs a lot more than 10-12 pounds.

As you increase the angle of your neck, the tendons and ligaments that support your cervical spine are forced to support not just your head’s weight, but also the increased forces exerted by gravity’s downward pull. When you tilt your head forward by just 45 degrees, the forces on your head are equivalent to about 50 pounds. Tilt a little further to 60 degrees, and your cervical spine bears an equivalent weight of a whopping 60 pounds. 

Because you probably become engrossed in whatever you’re reading or doing with your head bent, you don’t change its position for long periods of time. That prolonged strain on your muscles, tendons, and ligaments weakens them and causes the variety of symptoms associated with “tech neck.” Bending your head forward also changes the natural curves along your cervical spine, causing both hyperflexion and hyperextension. 

Tech neck hurts

When you first experience the symptoms of tech neck, you might not even notice them. Early, mild signs that you have a problem include:

·        Achy neck or shoulders

·        Stiff neck or shoulders

·        Slouching posture

If you don’t address tech neck, though, symptoms could become moderate to severe, such as:

·        Intense or stabbing pain in your neck

·        Intense or stabbing pain in your shoulders

·        Decreased mobility of your neck or shoulders

·        Muscle spasms

·        Headaches

·        Tingling sensations

·        Numbness

·        Shooting pain down your arms or back

When your mild symptoms don’t resolve with rest or stretching exercises, or if you already have moderate or severe symptoms, contact Dr. Fuller for an evaluation and treatment.

Make lifestyle changes

If you only have mild symptoms, Dr. Fuller recommends lifestyle changes to help heal your tech neck. First, of course, stop bending your neck to look at your devices or work. Instead, hold your phone or device at eye level when reading or texting. 

You should also elevate computer screens, including laptop screens, to eye level. You might need to purchase a separate keyboard for your laptop to ensure that you don’t bend your neck to look at your screen. Or, just be sure that you sit straight and look down only with your eyes, not your neck.

Also, take frequent breaks whenever you have to use a device or even sit for prolonged periods. Get up on your feet and stretch, and then walk around for at least five minutes. Taking breaks from sitting improves your overall health, too.

Get treatment

If lifestyle changes don’t improve your symptoms, or if they progress, contact Dr. Fuller. Depending on the factors involved in your tech neck, he may recommend therapies such as:

·        Epidural injections

·        Facet joint injections

·        Radiofrequency nerve ablation

·        BOTOX®

·        Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy

·        Stem-cell therapy

If you have pain from tech neck or other reasons, contact us for relief by calling 303-355-3700. You can also request an appointment using our online form.


Popular posts from this blog

How to Identify and Treat Sacroiliitis

Image
Up to  25% of lower back pain  is caused by an inflammation of the sacroiliac joints, a condition known as sacroiliitis. You have two sacroiliac joints: one on each side of your hips. The sacroiliac joints attach your sacrum (i.e., part of your lower back that lies between the tailbone and your lowest vertebrae) to your ilium (i.e., the upper portion of your pelvic bones). Brian Fuller, MD , and our expert team members at Mountain Spine & Pain Physicians in Denver, Colorado, recognize that  lower back pain  can be frustrating to live with and its underlying causes may be difficult to detect. Here, we share a few insights into what sacroiliitis is, how to know if you might have it, and how to treat it. A joint you can’t move Normally, when you think about your joints, you think about the “hinge” or “ball and socket” connections between two bones that allow you to do things like bend, flex, and rotate. Your sacroiliac joints, however, are tightly attached to each other with a series
Read more

How Lower Back Pain Affects Your Hips

Image
Your body isn’t just a set of unrelated systems that operate independently. Your spine and bones, muscles and other soft-tissues, and your nerves all affect one another. When you have lower back pain, for instance, it changes the way you hold and distribute your body weight, which alters the way you hold and use your  hip joints , too.    Brian J. Fuller, MD,  a Harvard-trained, triple-board certified physician and founder of Mountain Spine & Pain Physicians in Denver, Colorado, believes in healing the underlying problems that cause your pain. Here he discusses how untreated, unhealed lower back pain can hurt your hips, too. The kind of referral you don’t want When your hips and upper legs are stiff and painful, the problem might not originate in your hip joint at all. If you have sacroiliitis — an inflammation in one or both of your sacroiliac joints (i.e., the joint that connects your lower back to your pelvis) — the pain can radiate downward toward your hip joint. Pain that’s fe
Read more

Why Radiofrequency Ablation May Be the Answer to Your Back Pain

Image
Blame it on your own two feet and your upright stance:  Back pain  in human beings is pervasive. If you haven’t experienced it yet, chances are you will.  But if you have chronic back pain (i.e., back pain that’s lasted three months or more), you may not find comfort in knowing that you’re far from alone. Taking pain medications, or just suffering through the discomfort and trying to get on with life takes a heavy toll, both physically and emotionally. That’s why  Brian Fuller, MD  and his team at  Mountain Spine & Pain Physicians  in Denver offer minimally invasive radiofrequency ablation (RFA) for long-term back pain relief. Turn down the pain signals When you’re in chronic pain, your nerves continually send pain signals to your brain that keep you in a state of discomfort. Pain alerts your brain to the fact that something’s gone wrong in your body. In the short term, pain prevents you from further injuring a weakened or traumatized body part, but if it goes on for too long, pain
Read more