Has your child or teenager ever woken up with a stiff and painful neck? The culprit is poor posture!

Acute Wry Neck is classified as one of three different types:
Facet Joint Wry Neck, Discogenic Wry Neck and Text Neck.

Facet Joint Wry Neck
Facet joints are found on either side of each vertebrae of the spine and allow for controlled rotation and side bending. An awkward movement or sustained posture of the neck (sleeping with the wrong pillow; holding the head awkwardly while on the phone or playing with the iPad or video games) can cause a part of the joint capsule to tear or get caught in the joint, making it feel locked. The muscles around the area become tight as they protect the injured joint and the pain is usually sharp.

The good news about Facet Wry Neck is that your physiotherapist is usually able to help to ‘unlock’ the neck quite quickly with laser therapy, ultrasound therapy, gentle mobilisations and possibly a manipulation. Most of the time a full recovery can be expected within a week. Your physiotherapist will help your child / teenager to adopt better postures so he/she can continue to use devices but avoid further damage.

Discogenic Wry Neck
Each of the vertebrae of the neck are separated by fibrous discs which are filled with a gelatinous centre. Under pressure, these discs may become irritated and the resulting swelling can cause pain and muscle spasm in the surrounding area. In the neck, a small amount of damage can result in a large amount of pain.

The development of Discogenic Wry Neck is usually due to a combination of factors, including prolonged poor posture, poor nutrition and weakness of the neck muscles. It can be difficult to find a comfortable position and it is likely that pain and other symptoms will travel into the arm.

Initial treatment of Discogenic Wry Neck focuses on reducing pain and muscle spasm with laser therapy, ultrasound therapy, massage, taping, mobilisations, heat and postural education. Discogenic Wry Neck is more serious than Facet Joint Wry neck and it is imperative that safer postures are adopted as damage has already occurred. While the initial symptoms may settle down quite quickly, it can take up to six weeks to fully recover from this.

Text Neck
This is a repetitive stress injury to the neck caused by holding the head in a forward and downward position for extended periods of time causing excessive amounts of tension to be created in the deep muscles of the neck and across the shoulders. Chronic headaches have also been linked to this condition.

When your child’s or teenager’s head is tilted forwards by just 2 cm, the weight of the head increases dramatically, putting huge forces through the particular joint supporting the weight. This can be the equivalent of six Ten-pin bowling balls! The treatment for this is similar to the treatment for the Discogenic Wry Neck where the emphasis will be on postural education.