Treating Neck Sprains
The first thing that you need to know in this context is that all sprains are treated the same way. This means that a sprained neck would be treated the same way that a sprained ankle is.
A sprained neck would heal over time – it would not happen overnight. However, you have to follow the right method of treatment and give it the time it needs to heal. Sometimes, you might have to wear a soft collar around the neck. This would help provide much-needed support to your head and reduce the pressure that is normally put on the ligaments whenever a sprain happens.
This, in turn, would give the neck the time to heal.
Using pain relievers to treat the condition
Pain relievers such as ibuprofen and aspirin can be extremely useful in these cases as they reduce the pain as well as the swelling. You can also use muscle relaxants that can make the spasms easier to bear. Apart from that, you can apply ice packs on your sprained neck for around 15-30 minutes at a stretch. You can do this for 2-3 days after you first suffered the injury.
This helps bring down the levels of inflammation and thus makes it a lot more comfortable for you as well. Heat, especially moist heat, can play a major role in helping you heal by loosening up the cramped muscles over there. If you want to use heat or ice on the sprained neck you should do it within the first couple of days of suffering the injury. This will help you reduce the swelling.
Other treatments
You can also take recourse to some other treatments when the injury is in a better state. However, you should never start them without being supervised by a doctor. The most prominent options in this regard are massaging the tender area, using cervical or neck traction, ultrasound therapy, and isometric and aerobic exercises.
A few things to know in this regard
Most of the symptoms that you suffer from in neck sprain tend to go away within a span of 4-6 weeks. However, if you have a severe injury it would take a lot of time to heal totally.
Some initial treatments for neck sprain
When you first get a neck sprain and the pain starts the doctors normally recommend a few ways to check and cure the condition. The first among them is activity modification. In these cases, you have to stop taking part in activities that put strain on your body and rest your neck for a few days. This will give the tendons and muscles over there the time to start the healing process and this would make you feel better as well. If you attempt to push through the pain and do not reduce your normal activity levels it would make the injury worse and this would make the pain last longer.
