If you’re dealing with neck pain, you are absolutely not alone. It’s one of the most common complaints we see at Kosterman Chiropractic in Cary, and honestly, it’s not hard to understand why. Look around at any coffee shop, office, or waiting room, and you’ll see the same thing — heads down, eyes on screens, shoulders rounded forward. Between working on computers all day and the time people spend looking down at their smartphones, we are putting our necks under a level of stress they were simply not designed to handle. And we do it for hours every single day.
Here’s the thing about neck pain, though — it rarely comes out of nowhere. Most of the patients I see have had a problem building for a long time, whether from bad habits, poor posture, old injuries, or repetitive strain that accumulated over the years. The body is incredibly good at compensating, but eventually it reaches a point where it can no longer keep up. When the tissue becomes damaged or stressed beyond the body’s ability to handle it, symptoms appear. That’s your body’s way of telling you something isn’t right underneath. Accidents and injuries — car collisions, slip and falls, even hitting a deer — can also trigger neck pain more suddenly. Still, even then, there’s often an underlying vulnerability that made the injury worse than it should have been.
The neck is one of the most important structures in the entire body, and most people don’t appreciate just how much is riding on it. It has to support the full weight of your head — about 10 to 12 pounds — while allowing you to move, balance, and coordinate everything you do. Running through it is the spinal cord, carrying communication signals between your brain and virtually every system in your body. When the neck isn’t functioning properly, the effects go far beyond just pain and stiffness. Headaches, TMJ problems, vertigo, tinnitus, and a host of other symptoms can all trace their roots back to dysfunction in the cervical spine. This is not a structure you want to ignore.
Neck pain can involve muscles, joints, discs, or a combination of all three — and in my experience, it’s usually more than one. A subluxation in the cervical spine, which is a misalignment or loss of motion in one of the vertebrae, can irritate the surrounding nerves and tissues, causing muscle spasms, joint inflammation, disc stress, and neurological effects all at once. The nerves coming out of the cervical spine don’t just go to your arms and hands — they connect to organs and systems throughout the body, which is why the effects of a cervical subluxation can be so wide-ranging and surprising to patients.
The conventional medical approach to neck pain typically involves pain medication, muscle relaxers, and, maybe, a referral to physical therapy. And look — ibuprofen is cheap, and it works to take the edge off. But it doesn’t tell you what’s actually wrong, and it doesn’t fix anything. It’s masking the symptom while the underlying problem continues. If all you want is temporary relief, that might do the trick for a while. But if you want to know what’s actually driving your pain and you want real healing — that’s what we’re about at Kosterman Chiropractic.
Our approach starts with a thorough consultation and hands-on examination to identify the exact cause of your neck pain. We want the full picture — how long it’s been there, what makes it better or worse, what you’ve already tried, how it’s affecting your daily life. From there, we use specific chiropractic adjustments to correct subluxations, restore proper motion, and relieve pressure on the nerves and surrounding tissues so the body can heal. Combined with soft-tissue work, targeted exercises, and spinal decompression when indicated, we’re not just chasing your symptoms—we’re fixing the problem. That’s the difference.
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How Our Care Plan Works
1. Better
In the first phase of care, our priority is simple: help you feel better fast. We work to reduce pain, improve mobility, and support better sleep so your body can begin healing the right way. This is where we calm the irritation, begin restoring proper motion, and lay the foundation for lasting results — not just temporary relief.
2. Stronger
Once pain has decreased and mobility begins to return, we shift our focus to restoring proper function and stability. This phase is about correcting the underlying issues, rebuilding strength, and improving the way your spine and body move — so progress sticks. We work to help you return to the activities you love with confidence, not caution.
3. Healthier
It doesn’t make sense to get you better, just for it to all go bad again! We want you feeling and functioning your best for years to come. This phase ensures that you maintain all of the amazing progress you have made.
How We Treat Neck Pain In Cary, NC
Comprehensive Consultation and Exam
When a new patient comes in with neck pain, the first thing we do is slow down. Everyone is busy these days, so if you’ve taken the time to come in, it must be a big deal — and you deserve my full attention. We sit down together in a quiet room, just the two of us, and I ask you to tell me what’s going on. Then I listen. How long has it been there? Has this happened before? What makes it better or worse? What have you already tried? Who else have you seen? How is it affecting your daily life? What are your goals? The more I understand about your situation, the better equipped I am actually to help you.
After we’ve talked through everything, we move into the physical exam — and I want to be clear about something: this is a hands-on exam. In many healthcare settings today, doctors don’t even touch their patients anymore. That’s not how we do things here. I start by asking you to show me exactly where the pain is — point to it with your hand. Then I use my own hands to palpate the area, identify the problem, and reproduce it. That’s important because if I can find it and recreate it, I can understand it.
From there, we move through a series of specific orthopedic tests to gather more data, followed by a neurological exam — checking sensation, muscle strength, and reflexes — to determine which nerves may be involved and how long they’ve been affected. We also go through range-of-motion testing, which is really just a fancy way of saying I watch you move. There’s a tremendous amount of information in how and where your movement is restricted, because it almost always points us directly to the source of the problem.
By the end of the exam, I have a very clear picture of what’s going on and why. The goal isn’t just to treat your symptoms — it’s to find the root cause, because that’s the only way to actually fix it and make sure it doesn’t keep coming back.
Digital X-rays
When someone comes in with neck pain, one of the first things I want to do is see what’s actually going on inside. And I don’t mean guessing — I mean actually looking. That’s exactly what our in-office digital X-ray allows us to do, and having that capability right here means we can get you answers the same day you come in, rather than sending you somewhere else and waiting.
The cervical spine is a complex structure, and a good set of neck X-rays contains a tremendous amount of information. I’m looking at the alignment of each vertebra, the spacing between them, which tells us about disc health, and most importantly, the curve of the neck itself. A healthy cervical spine has a specific arc to it — think of it like a banana shape. When that curve starts to straighten out or even reverse, which I see constantly in patients who spend a lot of time looking down at screens, it tells me that significant stress has been building in that area for a long time. It also shows me where degeneration and arthritis have developed, where bone spurs have formed, and where the problem is actually coming from, rather than where the patient feels it. That distinction matters more than most people realize.
All of that information shapes how I care for you. It tells me where to focus, how to adjust, and what to expect in terms of recovery. Without it, I’m working blind, and that’s not how we do things at Kosterman Chiropractic.
As for safety, our digital X-ray system is a high-frequency unit, which means radiation exposure is minimal, far lower than older equipment. We take only the views we need and nothing more. The insight we gain from those images is invaluable, and for most neck pain patients, it’s a critical piece of the puzzle.
Specific Chiropractic Care in Cary, NC
The cervical spine — the seven vertebrae that make up your neck — is one of the most neurologically rich areas of the entire body. Running through it is the spinal cord itself, and branching off at each level are nerves that control and communicate with a surprisingly wide range of structures. Most people think neck problems just cause neck pain or maybe some arm tingling. But the reality goes much deeper than that.
Here’s what the meric chart — a map of cervical nerve function — actually shows us. The nerves at the very top of the neck, C1 and C2, supply the head, scalp, sinuses, eyes, and inner ear. C3 covers the face and outer ear and plays a role in certain types of headaches. C4 helps control the diaphragm and shoulder movement. C5 through C7 supply the shoulders, arms, elbows, wrists, and hands, which is why neck problems so commonly cause arm pain, numbness, and weakness. And C8 extends into the hands and fingers. When there is a subluxation at any of these levels, the nerve flow coming through that area is compromised — and the tissues, muscles, and organs those nerves supply don’t get their full signal. Think of it like a garden hose that gets kinked. The water is still running, but the flowers at the end aren’t getting nearly enough to thrive fully. Over time, things start to wilt.
This is why cervical subluxations can produce such a wide range of symptoms beyond just neck pain — headaches, vertigo, tinnitus, TMJ issues, shoulder pain, arm numbness, and more. Patients are often surprised to learn that problems they’ve been dealing with for years could be connected to what’s happening in their neck.
So what does the conventional medical approach look like for neck pain? Usually, NSAIDs, muscle relaxers, maybe a steroid dose pack, and if things are really bad, a referral to a specialist. And again, those things can take the edge off. But they don’t correct a subluxation, restore lost motion, or address what’s actually driving the problem. They quiet the signal without fixing what’s sending it.
At Kosterman Chiropractic in Cary, NC, our approach is fundamentally different because our goal is fundamentally different. We want to find exactly where the subluxation is, correct it with a specific chiropractic adjustment, restore proper motion to the joint, and take the pressure off the nerves so the body can do what it’s designed to do — heal itself. We want every nerve in your cervical spine delivering its full signal to every tissue it supplies. No kinks in the hose. That’s how we get real, lasting results instead of just temporary relief.
Custom Therapeutic Exercise Plan
Exercise is a critical part of recovering from neck pain, but, as with the lower back, timing matters. We don’t load a tissue that isn’t ready. Once we’ve reduced the pain and inflammation to a manageable level and the spine is responding well to care, we strategically introduce a customized exercise plan.
For most of our neck pain patients, the focus is on undoing years of bad posture and bad habits. The majority of people we see spend a significant part of their day working at a computer or looking down at their phone, and over time, that takes a very predictable toll on the body. What we typically find is a pattern called upper crossed syndrome — the chest muscles and upper trapezius become chronically tight and overactive. In contrast, the deep neck muscles and the muscles between the shoulder blades become weak and underactive. The result is that forward head, rounded shoulder posture that’s become almost universal today. For every inch your head drifts forward from its ideal position, it adds roughly ten pounds of effective weight on your cervical spine. That adds up fast.
So our exercise plans for neck pain patients focus on two things — stretching what’s tight and strengthening what’s weak. For upper crossed syndrome specifically, three of the most effective exercises we use are chin tucks to strengthen the deep neck flexors and correct forward head posture, scapular squeezes to activate the rhomboids and middle trapezius, and pull the shoulders back where they belong, and wall angels to open up the chest and retrain the upper back muscles to support proper posture. Simple movements but incredibly effective when done consistently.
For patients recovering from a traumatic injury like a car accident or whiplash, the approach is a little different. Those cases involve specific injured tissues that need time to heal before we load them, so we’re very deliberate about when and how we introduce strengthening. We build gradually and make sure the body is ready.
One thing that sets us apart is how we deliver exercise plans. We have software that sends your customized plan directly to your email with photos and videos, so you always know exactly what to do and how to do it correctly. We also have a library of helpful exercise and stretch videos on our YouTube page that patients can reference anytime. The goal is to make it as easy as possible for you to do your part at home, because what you do between visits matters just as much as what we do in the office.
Cervical Spinal Decompression
Between each of the seven vertebrae in your neck sits a disc — a small but incredibly important structure that acts as a cushion, shock absorber, and spacer between the bones. Just like in the lower back, these discs have a tough outer layer and a soft gel-like center, and they rely entirely on movement to stay healthy since they have no direct blood supply after early adulthood. When the neck loses its normal range of motion due to subluxation, poor posture, injury, or years of accumulated stress, those discs begin to break down. They lose hydration, lose height, and can bulge or herniate into the surrounding tissue — often pressing directly on the nerves that exit the cervical spine.
When that happens, patients don’t just feel neck pain. They feel it traveling. Into the shoulder, down the arm, into the hand, and sometimes all the way into the fingers. Numbness, tingling, weakness, and that deep achy feeling that just won’t go away, no matter what position you try. That’s a compressed nerve, and it’s telling you something significant is going on in the cervical spine.
This is exactly where cervical spinal decompression becomes such a valuable tool. Using our decompression table, we apply a gentle, precise pulling force to the cervical spine, creating a negative pressure — a vacuum effect — inside the disc. That negative pressure does two powerful things simultaneously. It draws the bulging or herniated disc material back toward the center, taking it off the nerve so the nerve can finally begin to heal. And it pulls water, oxygen, and nutrients back into the disc through the pumping process called imbibition, helping the tissue rehydrate and regenerate over time.
For patients with herniated or bulging cervical discs, this can be genuinely life-changing. But it’s also incredibly effective for those dealing with degenerative disc disease in the neck — as the disc is decompressed and fluid is drawn back in, patients feel better, and the disc itself becomes healthier over time. It’s one of the few approaches that actually addresses the disc rather than just managing the symptoms around it. Combined with specific chiropractic adjustments and a targeted exercise plan, cervical decompression gives us a powerful and non-invasive way to help patients avoid medication, injections, and surgery while achieving real, lasting relief.
Common Causes of Neck Pain in Cary, NC
Bulged Cervical Discs
To understand a cervical disc bulge, it helps first to understand what a disc actually is. Between each of the seven bones in your neck sits a disc — think of it like a small water balloon. It cushions the vertebrae, absorbs shock, and allows your neck to move freely. The disc has a tough outer layer and a soft gel-like center, and when everything is working properly, that gel stays right where it belongs — contained inside the center of the disc.
A cervical disc bulge happens when the outer wall of the disc weakens and pushes outward beyond its normal boundary. The outer layer hasn’t torn yet, but the disc is expanding into space it shouldn’t be occupying — and in the neck, where the spinal cord and nerve roots are in very close proximity, even a small bulge can create significant problems.
The causes are usually postural and cumulative rather than the result of one dramatic event. Bad posture over a long enough period of time is the most common culprit I see. When the head drifts forward — which happens constantly with computer work, phone use, and even driving for a living — the weight distribution of the entire cervical spine shifts. Instead of being shared properly between the discs and the facet joints, the load falls disproportionately on the discs. Over time, that abnormal pressure weakens the disc until eventually it gives way. Trauma absolutely plays a role as well — car accidents, whether you’re the one being rear-ended or doing the rear-ending, t-bone collisions, and other sudden impacts can push a disc that was already vulnerable over the edge.
Symptoms of a cervical disc bulge can range from nagging neck stiffness and achiness to sharp pain that travels into the shoulder, arm, hand, or fingers. Patients often describe numbness or tingling that runs down the arm, and in some cases, weakness in the hand or grip. Turning the head in certain directions can make it significantly worse, and many patients find that they can’t get comfortable no matter what position they try.
Treatment at Kosterman Chiropractic combines specific chiropractic adjustments to restore proper alignment and motion to the cervical spine, cervical spinal decompression to take pressure off the disc and draw it back toward the center, soft tissue work to relieve the surrounding muscle tension, and a progressive exercise plan to rebuild the postural strength that protects the neck going forward. The goal is to address the disc—not just quiet the symptoms—so you can get back to feeling like yourself again.
Herniated Cervical Discs
A cervical disc herniation takes things a step further than a bulge. Where a bulge indicates the outer wall of the disc is pushing outward but still intact, a herniation means the outer layer has torn,n and the soft, gel-like center has leaked out. If a bulging disc is like a tire losing air — the wall pushes out but holds together — a herniated disc is like a jelly donut with a hole in it. The filling is no longer contained, and it’s now in territory it was never supposed to be in.
Because a herniation is more severe and tends to protrude further into the surrounding tissue, it’s much more likely to make direct contact with a nerve root or even the spinal cord itself. That’s what separates the symptoms of a herniation from those of a bulge. Where a bulge might produce chronic stiffness, a dull ache, or gradual arm discomfort that builds over time, a herniation tends to announce itself much more aggressively. Sharp, intense neck pain that shoots down into the shoulder and arm, significant numbness or tingling in the hand and fingers, and, in more serious cases, weakness in the arm or grip strength. Some patients describe it as an electric or burning sensation that runs down the entire arm. Turning or tilting the head in certain directions can trigger immediate shooting pain, and finding a comfortable position to sleep becomes genuinely difficult.
The treatment approach at Kosterman Chiropractic for a cervical disc herniation follows the same philosophy as everything else we do — find the cause, address it directly, and give the body what it needs to heal. We use specific chiropractic adjustments to restore proper alignment and motion, cervical spinal decompression to create negative pressure that draws the herniated material back toward the center and takes it off the nerve, soft tissue work to address the muscle guarding and tension that always accompany this kind of injury, and a carefully timed exercise plan introduced once the tissue is ready for it. Herniations require patience — the injury is more significant, and healing takes longer — but with the right approach, the results can be truly life-changing. For most patients, surgery never needs to be part of the conversation.
Muscle Strain
We already wrote this one for the lower back page, and the concept is identical — just a different location in the spine. Rather than rewrite it from scratch, let me just adapt it for the cervical spine with a fresh angle. Here’s the updated version:
Degenerative disc disease in the neck is one of those diagnoses that tends to frighten patients when they first hear it — and I completely understand why. The word “disease” sounds serious, and being told your discs are degenerating doesn’t exactly feel like good news. But the first thing I tell patients is this: let’s put it in context, because the way it’s often explained does people a real disservice.
The most common thing I hear from patients is that their doctor told them their neck hurts because they’re getting older, and this is just part of the aging process. And while age is certainly a factor, it’s not the whole story — not even close. Here’s how I know. When I look at a patient’s cervical x-rays and see degeneration, it’s rarely throughout the entire neck. It’s at one or two specific levels. Now think about that — if this were simply a matter of aging, every disc in the neck would be the same age. So why is the degeneration only in one place? Because age isn’t the cause. The cause is an area of the cervical spine that was injured or lost its proper motion at some point, and has been breaking down ever since.
When a segment of the neck stops moving properly due to a subluxation or old injury, the disc at that level gets starved of the movement it needs to stay healthy. Remember — cervical discs have no blood supply after early adulthood. They rely entirely on motion to pump nutrients in and flush waste out. Take that motion away long enough, and the disc begins to dehydrate, lose height, and break down. The vertebrae above and below start to feel that instability, and the body responds the only way it knows how — by laying down extra bone in the form of spurs, thickening the surrounding ligaments, and tightening the muscles around the area to protect it. The whole segment gradually stiffens and deteriorates. It’s the same process as a tooth that’s had a cavity for years, never treated.
Risk factors include a history of neck injuries — especially car accidents — prolonged poor posture, years of forward head position from screen use, physically demanding work, and simply having had subluxations that were never addressed. The longer the spine goes without proper motion and alignment, the more opportunity degeneration has to set in.
Patients with cervical degenerative disc disease typically feel chronic stiffness and achiness in the neck, often worse in the morning when the spine has been still all night. Movement and warmth loosen things up as the day goes on. Some patients also experience headaches, arm pain, or neurological symptoms, depending on which level is affected and the extent of irritation of the surrounding nerves.
While we can’t reverse degeneration that has already occurred, we can absolutely slow it down, manage the symptoms, and significantly improve how the patient feels and functions. Specific chiropractic adjustments to restore motion to the affected segments are the cornerstone of care here — the spine is designed to move. As we reintroduce proper motion, the body can begin to heal as it was meant to. Cervical spinal decompression helps rehydrate the discs and create more space; soft tissue work addresses chronic muscle tightness; and a progressive exercise plan rebuilds the postural strength and stability the cervical spine needs to protect itself going forward. The goal is to stop the progression, reduce the symptoms, and help you stay active and mobile for the long haul.
Spinal Stenosis
Cervical spinal stenosis is one of the most serious conditions we deal with in our office, and I want to be straightforward with patients about that from the very beginning. Understanding what’s happening inside the spine helps put the urgency of getting proper care into perspective.
Your spinal cord runs through a bony canal — essentially a tunnel — that travels through each vertebra in your neck. At the very top of the cervical spine, just below the base of the skull, the brainstem transitions into the spinal cord. This is one of the most critical structures in the entire human body. It controls everything — movement, sensation, coordination, breathing, heart rate, and the communication between your brain and virtually every system below it. When the canal that houses this structure narrows, the consequences can be far-reaching and serious.
Cervical spinal stenosis occurs when the canal becomes too tight. And just like lumbar stenosis, it’s rarely the result of one thing — it’s a combination of changes that have accumulated over a long period of time, usually because the spine wasn’t properly cared for. Degenerated and bulging discs reduce available space. Ligaments within the canal thicken and further crowd it. Facet joints that have broken down and developed bone spurs change shape and eat into the canal from the sides. Over time, all of these changes add up, and the spinal cord or the nerve roots exiting the spine have less and less room.
The symptoms of cervical stenosis can be wide-ranging, depending on whether the cord itself is being compressed or the pressure is primarily on the nerve roots exiting through the small openings on the sides of the spine called foramina. Nerve root compression typically produces pain, numbness, tingling, or weakness in one or both arms and hands — similar to what you’d feel with a disc herniation. Cord compression is more serious and can produce symptoms throughout the body below the neck — difficulty with balance and coordination, weakness in the legs, a feeling of heaviness or clumsiness, and, in severe cases, issues with bladder or bowel function. Some patients describe a sensation of an electric shock running down the spine when they bend their neck forward. Any of these symptoms is a signal that this needs to be evaluated and addressed without delay.
What makes cervical stenosis better or worse follows a similar pattern to the lumbar version in some ways — extended positions that open the canal tend to feel better while positions that compress it make things worse. But unlike lumbar stenosis, where walking is the primary trigger, cervical stenosis patients often notice their symptoms with prolonged neck flexion, looking down at screens, or sustained positions that load the spine.
I want to be honest about expectations with these patients — we are not going to reverse the structural changes that have accumulated over years or decades. But what we have found is that gentle, specific chiropractic adjustments combined with non-surgical cervical spinal decompression can make a tremendous difference in how these patients function and feel day to day. Decompression works beautifully for this group because it gently creates space in the canal, takes pressure off the cord and nerve roots, and helps rehydrate the discs that are contributing to the narrowing. We see these patients regularly, and the results are genuinely rewarding. For people who feel like they’re running out of options and want to avoid surgery, this approach gives them a real fighting chance at maintaining their function, their mobility, and their independence.
Muscle Strain
A neck muscle strain is one of the most common reasons people reach out to us, and it’s also one of the most underestimated. When a muscle strain occurs in the neck, the actual muscle fibers or tendons are overstretched or partially torn — usually from a sudden awkward movement, sleeping in a bad position, overdoing it at the gym, or the kind of whipping force that happens in a car accident. Symptoms typically include localized pain and tenderness, stiffness, muscle spasms, and difficulty turning the head freely. Most straightforward strains will calm down within a couple of weeks with rest, ice, heat, and basic self-care.
But here’s what I always want patients to understand — muscles don’t work in isolation. They attach to bone, and their entire job is to move those bones. So when a neck muscle is strained, the structures it attaches to are almost always involved as well. That means the vertebrae, the joints, and often the discs. In my experience, when someone comes in convinced they’ve just slept wrong or pulled a muscle, a thorough exam frequently reveals that there’s something more going on underneath — a subluxation, an irritated joint, or a disc that took the same hit the muscle did.
There’s also a bigger question worth asking — why did the strain happen in the first place? Often, the muscles simply weren’t strong enough or balanced enough to handle the demand placed on them. Years of poor posture, forward head position, and muscle imbalance left the neck vulnerable, and it finally gave way. That’s not just a muscle problem — that’s a structural and stability problem that needs to be properly addressed. A thorough exam is the only way to know what you’re really dealing with, and getting the right diagnosis from the start sets you up for real long-term recovery instead of the same injury cycling back again and again.
Tech Neck
Tech neck is a term we’re using more and more in our office, and honestly, it’s one of the most accurate descriptions of what I see walking through our doors every single day. Tech neck refers to the postural syndrome that develops from spending prolonged periods of time looking down at phones, tablets, and computer screens — and if you’re picturing someone hunched forward with their chin jutting out and their shoulders rounded, you’ve got it exactly right. It’s become so common that it almost looks normal now. It isn’t.
Here’s why it’s such a problem. The average human head weighs about 10 to 12 pounds when sitting directly over the shoulders in its ideal position. But for every inch that head drifts forward, the effective weight on the cervical spine increases dramatically — at just two to three inches forward, that load can increase to thirty or forty pounds of force bearing down on the neck and upper back constantly. Over the course of a day, a week, a year, the cumulative damage to the discs, joints, muscles, and ligaments of the cervical spine is significant.
One of the most telling things I see in X-rays of tech neck patients is a loss of the normal cervical curve. A healthy neck has a gentle backward C shape to it — that curve is what allows the spine to distribute load properly and protect the spinal cord. When someone develops tech neck, the curve starts to straighten or even reverse, and when that happens, the biomechanics of the cervical spine worsen. Discs are now under abnormal pressure. Joints are stressed. Muscles are working overtime just to hold the head up. And the spinal cord itself can be affected by the change in tension that comes with a reversed curve.
The downstream effects of tech neck go well beyond just a stiff neck. Chronic headaches, shoulder pain, upper back tension, jaw problems, and even tingling in the arms can all develop as a result of the postural changes tech neck creates. Left unaddressed long enough, it leads to accelerated degeneration, disc problems, and the kind of changes on x-ray that we associate with a spine decades older than the patient actually is. The good news is that with the right care, corrective exercises, and some changes to daily habits, tech neck is very treatable — especially when we catch it before the damage becomes permanent.
Facet Joint Dysfunction
The facet joints are the small paired joints located on the back of each vertebra that connect the bones of your spine. Every level of your cervical spine has two of them, and their job is to guide movement, provide stability, and allow you to turn, tilt, and extend your neck freely. Most people have never thought about them until one becomes a problem — and when it does, it can be a very real and persistent source of neck pain.
Just like any joint in the body, cervical facet joints can become injured, inflamed, and arthritic over time. Poor posture, repetitive movements, old injuries, whiplash, and subluxations all place abnormal stress on these joints over the years. When the cartilage inside the joint wears down,n the body responds by creating inflammation, thickening the surrounding ligaments, and developing bone spurs around the joint. The whole area gradually breaks down, and that breakdown causes pain.
Cervical facet joint pain typically presents as a deep, achy pain on one or both sides of the neck, stiffness that’s worst in the morning or after sitting still for a while, and pain that tends to worsen when you extend or rotate your neck. It can refer pain to the shoulder and the base of the skull, or even produce headaches. What makes it tricky is that it can mimic disc problems or muscle issues, which is exactly why a thorough consultation and hands-on exam are so important. I want to make sure we’re treating the right thing.
Once we’ve identified the facet joints as the source, the approach is straightforward — specific chiropractic adjustments to restore proper motion and alignment to the affected joints, soft tissue work to address the muscle tension that always develops around a painful joint, and a targeted exercise plan to build the postural strength and stability needed to protect those joints going forward. Most patients respond really well once the right area is addressed.
Subluxation
A subluxation in the cervical spine is something I talk about with virtually every neck pain patient I see — because in most cases it’s at the center of what’s driving their problem. Simply put, a subluxation is a misalignment or loss of proper motion in one of the vertebrae of the neck. It can be a subtle shift or a more significant one, and it can also be a vertebra that has simply become stuck and stopped moving the way it should. Both misalignment and loss of motion are problems because the cervical spine is designed to move freely and remain healthy through that movement.
The effects of a cervical subluxation on the body are often surprising to patients. The obvious symptoms are neck pain, stiffness, and restricted movement. But the nerves exiting the cervical spine supply far more than just the neck and arms — they connect to the sinuses, the eyes, the inner ear, the thyroid, the heart, the lungs, and more. When a subluxation puts pressure on those nerves, the body can’t communicate effectively through them, and the tissues and organs they supply don’t function at their full potential. Think of it like a dimmer switch on a light — the power is still on, but the light isn’t burning as brightly as it should be. Headaches, vertigo, tinnitus, jaw pain, shoulder problems, and arm symptoms can all be traced to cervical spine subluxations.
Subluxations are identified through a careful combination of consultation, hands-on palpation, range-of-motion assessment, and specific orthopedic and neurological testing. I use my hands to feel the spine, assess movement at each level, and identify exactly where things are stuck, misaligned, or not functioning as they should. It’s a skill that takes years of focused training to develop well.
Which is exactly why a chiropractor is the best-equipped provider to address this problem. Most other practitioners simply aren’t trained to find subluxations — which means they can’t fix them either. At chiropractic school, we spend years developing the hands-on assessment and adjustment skills necessary to detect and correct subluxations precisely and safely. The chiropractic adjustment delivers a specific, controlled force to the affected vertebra to restore its proper alignment and motion, relieve pressure on the surrounding nerves, and allow the body to do what it’s always been designed to do — heal itself. No medications, no injections, no surgery. Just the spine working the way it was built to work.
Osteoarthritis
Arthritis is a word that tends to make patients nervous, and I get it — it sounds permanent, progressive, and scary. But let me give you a more complete picture, because understanding what arthritis actually is changes how you think about what can be done about it.
Osteoarthritis in the cervical spine is essentially the breakdown of the cartilage inside the joints of the neck — the facet joints, the disc spaces, and the small joints between the vertebrae. When that cartilage wears down, the bones begin to respond by forming spurs, the surrounding ligaments thicken, and the joint loses its smooth,h painless range of motion. It’s a degenerative process that develops over time, almost always in response to abnormal stress on the joint — old injuries that were never properly addressed, subluxations that caused years of abnormal motion, poor posture, and the accumulated wear of daily life without proper spinal maintenance.
Patients with cervical arthritis typically describe a chronic deep aching in the neck, stiffness that’s worst in the morning and after periods of inactivity, grinding or clicking with movement, and sometimes headaches or pain that refers to the shoulders. Flare-ups can be triggered by cold weather, prolonged poor posture, or overexertion. It tends to come and go, but if left unaddressed, it gradually becomes harder to manage.
Can you prevent arthritis? To a significant degree, yes. Keeping the spine properly aligned and moving well through regular chiropractic care, maintaining good posture, staying active, and addressing injuries promptly rather than ignoring them all dramatically reduces the rate at which arthritic changes develop. The spine that gets cared for consistently over a lifetime ages far more gracefully than one that doesn’t — just like that well-maintained car on the road that looks newer than one half its age.
Can you get rid of arthritis once it’s there? The honest answer is that the structural changes already in place can’t be fully reversed. But here’s what I tell my patients — the goal isn’t perfection, it’s function. With consistent chiropractic care, we can restore as much motion as possible to the arthritic segments, reduce inflammation and irritation in the surrounding tissues, take abnormal stress off the affected joints, and significantly slow progression. Most patients are genuinely surprised by how much better they feel and how much more freely they can move once we start working on the problem. Arthritis doesn’t have to mean a life of pain and limitation — and at Kosterman Chiropractic, we work hard every day to make sure it doesn’t.
Whiplash
Whiplash is one of those injuries that gets minimized far too often — by insurance companies, by emergency room doctors, and sometimes even by the patients themselves. “I was only going twenty miles an hour” is something I hear regularly. But here’s what most people don’t realize: the speed of the collision has very little to do with the severity of the injury to the soft tissues of the neck. A low-speed rear-end collision can generate tremendous force through the cervical spine in a fraction of a second, and the damage it causes can affect a patient for years if it isn’t properly addressed.
Whiplash occurs when the head is suddenly and violently thrown in one direction and then snapped back in the opposite direction — most commonly in a rear-end car collision, but also in t-bone accidents, sports injuries, slip and falls, and any other sudden impact that jerks the head unexpectedly. In that split second, the muscles, ligaments, discs, and joints of the cervical spine are forced well beyond their normal range of motion. The result is a complex soft-tissue injury that can involve multiple structures simultaneously.
The effects of whiplash can be immediate, or they can take hours or even days to fully develop, which is one of the most important things I want patients to understand. It is very common to walk away from a car accident feeling shaken but okay, only to wake up the next morning barely able to turn your head. That delayed onset occurs because the adrenaline and inflammatory responses take time to set in fully. Symptoms include neck pain and stiffness, headaches that often start at the base of the skull, shoulder and upper back pain, jaw pain, dizziness, difficulty concentrating, and pain or tingling in the arms. In more significant injuries, the discs can herniate, the facet joints can be damaged, and the normal cervical curve can be straightened or reversed — all of which set the stage for long-term problems if the injury is left untreated.
There are a few things I always want patients to be aware of following any accident or injury that could have caused whiplash. First, do not wait to get evaluated. Even if you feel fine. The absence of immediate pain does not mean there is no injury, and the sooner we assess the spine after a trauma, the better equipped we are to prevent those injuries from becoming chronic problems. Second, the emergency room is not designed to evaluate whiplash injuries. They are looking for broken bones, bleeding, and life-threatening emergencies. A clean CT scan or x-ray from the ER does not mean your soft tissues are uninjured. Third, do not let anyone tell you that your symptoms will just go away on their own. Some do. Many don’t. And the ones that don’t have a way of quietly worsening over months and years until the patient ends up in our office with chronic degeneration that traces directly back to that accident they thought they’d recovered from.
The chiropractic approach to whiplash is the most comprehensive and effective non-surgical option available, and here’s why. While the conventional medical approach typically involves pain medication, muscle relaxers, a soft collar, and instructions to rest — all of which do nothing to repair the structural and neurological damage the injury caused — we are actually assessing and treating the spine itself. At Kosterman Chiropractic, we begin with a thorough consultation and examination to fully understand the nature and extent of the injury. Digital x-rays allow us to assess the cervical curve, identify any misalignments, and establish a baseline for monitoring recovery. From there, we use specific gentle chiropractic adjustments to correct the subluxations the trauma created, restore proper motion to the affected joints, and take pressure off the irritated nerves and tissues. Soft tissue work addresses the muscle damage and spasm. Cervical spinal decompression helps when discs have been involved. And a progressive rehabilitative exercise plan rebuilds the strength and stability the injury took away — introduced carefully at the right time so we’re never loading tissue that isn’t ready.
The difference between patients who receive proper chiropractic care after a whiplash injury and those who don’t is significant and well-documented. Patients who address the injury properly heal faster, more completely, and are far less likely to develop the chronic neck pain, headaches, and degenerative changes that so commonly follow untreated whiplash. If you’ve been in an accident — even one that seemed minor — please come in and get checked. It may be the most important thing you do for your long-term health.
If you’ve been living with neck pain, stiffness, headaches, or arm symptoms and you haven’t found real answers yet, we want to help. At Kosterman Chiropractic in Cary, NC, we do one thing, and we do it exceptionally well — we find the root cause of what’s driving your pain, and we fix it. Don’t mask it. Do not manage it temporarily. Actually fix it.
We see patients every day from Cary, Apex, Morrisville, Holly Springs, Raleigh, and the surrounding communities who have been through the medication route, the urgent care route, and the “just rest and wait it out” route without getting the answers or the relief they deserve. If that sounds familiar, you’re in the right place.
Neck pain is what we do. It’s what we study, it’s what we treat, and it’s what we’re passionate about. From the first time you walk through our doors at Kosterman Chiropractic, you’ll notice the difference. During this thorough consultation, we actually listen, perform a hands-on examination to get to the bottom of what’s going on, take state-of-the-art digital X-rays right here in our office, and build a customized care plan specifically for your spine and your life. No cookie-cutter approaches. No rushed appointments. No one-size-fits-all treatment.
Whether you’re dealing with chronic neck stiffness that’s been building for years, a recent whiplash injury from a car accident, a herniated disc that’s sending pain into your arm, or tech neck from too many hours at a screen — we have the tools, the training, and the experience to help. Chiropractic adjustments, cervical spinal decompression, soft tissue therapy, and customized exercise plans all work together under one roof to get you well and keep you that way.
Don’t wait until the pain becomes unbearable or the damage becomes harder to reverse. The sooner we identify what’s going on, the easier it is to fix. Patients throughout the Cary, Apex, Morrisville, Holly Springs, and Raleigh areas trust Kosterman Chiropractic with their spinal health — and we take that trust seriously every single day.
Give us a call or request your appointment online. We look forward to helping you get back to feeling like yourself again.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a chiropractor in Cary, NC, good for neck pain?
Absolutely — and I’d argue we’re the best first stop you can make for neck pain because we’re specifically trained to find and fix the underlying structural and neurological causes that most other providers simply aren’t equipped to address. At Kosterman Chiropractic in Cary, we treat neck pain every single day, and the results speak for themselves.
When should you see a chiropractor for neck pain?
The moment it starts. The longer a problem goes unaddressed, the more the spine compensates and degenerates, making recovery more complicated. If your neck is hurting, stiff, or causing symptoms in your head or arms, that’s your body telling you something needs attention — don’t wait.
Is it okay to “pop” my own neck?
This is one of the questions I get most often, and my honest answer is — please don’t make a habit of it. When you self-manipulate your neck, you’re typically moving the joints that are already too loose and hypermobile rather than the ones that are actually stuck and need to be addressed. It might feel good temporarily, but it doesn’t fix anything, and over time,e it can actually create instability in the joints you keep forcing. A specific chiropractic adjustment targets exactly the right level in exactly the right direction — that’s a very different thing.
Is a massage or chiropractic better for neck pain?
Both are valuable, and they work best together, which is exactly why we incorporate soft tissue work alongside chiropractic adjustments at Kosterman Chiropractic. Massage addresses muscle tension and soft-tissue components, while chiropractic care corrects the underlying structural cause — combining the two produces far better results than either alone.
Do medical doctors recommend chiropractors for neck pain?
Increasingly, yes — the American College of Physicians now recommends spinal manipulation as a first-line treatment for neck and back pain, and many medical doctors in our area regularly refer patients to us. The evidence supporting chiropractic care for neck pain is strong, and the medical community is paying attention.
Does insurance cover chiropractors for neck pain?
Most major insurance plans do cover chiropractic care, including treatment for neck pain, though coverage varies by plan. We recommend calling your insurance provider to confirm your specific benefits, and our team at Kosterman Chiropractic is always happy to help you understand what your plan covers before you get started.
How can I relieve my neck pain?
The most effective thing you can do is get a proper evaluation at Kosterman Chiropractic so we can identify exactly what’s causing it and build a plan to fix it. In the meantime, gentle movement, ice for acute inflammation in the first 48 hours, heat for chronic muscle tightness, and being mindful of your posture,e especially at screens, ns can help take the edge off while we get you in.
How should I sleep with neck pain?
Side sleeping with a supportive pillow that keeps your head level with your spine is usually the most comfortable position for neck pain. Back sleeping with a cervical support pillow can also work well. What I’d steer clear of is sleeping on your stomach — it forces your neck into a rotated position for hours at a time and tends to make things significantly worse.
Why does my neck hurt on one side?
One-sided neck pain is usually a sign that a specific joint, muscle, or disc on that side is being stressed or irritated — often from a subluxation, a muscle imbalance, or the way you habitually position yourself at work or while sleeping. It’s your body’s way of pointing you to where the problem is, and a hands-on exam can almost always identify the culprit quickly.
How can you tell if your neck is out of alignment?
Common signs include persistent stiffness or soreness, uneven shoulder height, difficulty turning your head equally in both directions, recurring headaches, and pain or tingling that travels into the arm. The most reliable way to know for certain is to come into Kosterman Chiropractic for an evaluation — we can identify misalignments with our hands and confirm them with digital X-rays right here in our office.
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