Neck pain and tech neck.

Most neck pain is a load problem.

Seven small vertebrae carry your head, and they are built to do it with the head stacked over the shoulders. Every inch the head drifts forward adds work for the muscles at the back of the neck and the top of the shoulders. Hold that position through a workday and the muscles stay switched on for eight hours straight.

That is what people mean by tech neck. Phones, laptops, and monitors set too low all pull the same direction. The result is a familiar list: a tight band across the top of the shoulders, an ache at the base of the skull, a neck that will not turn all the way when you back out of a parking space, and a stiff, sore morning after a bad night on the wrong pillow.

Over time the joints themselves stop moving well. Muscles guard around a joint that has stopped moving, and guarding makes the stiffness worse. That loop is what turns a bad week into a bad year.

How Dr. Boss works out what is driving yours.

The exam starts with motion. Dr. Boss watches you turn, tilt, and look up, and notes where the movement stops and whether it stops from pain or from stiffness. He feels each segment of the neck to find the ones that have locked up. He checks how your shoulder blades sit, because the neck rarely fails on its own.

He also tests the nerves. Numbness, tingling, or weakness in an arm or hand means a nerve root may be involved, and that changes the plan. Pain that follows a crash gets a different exam again, which we cover on our auto accident injury page.

Then he shows you. Seeing your own neck on the 3D model, and seeing how little room a nerve has as it leaves the spine, explains more in thirty seconds than a handout does in a page.

What treatment looks like.

Adjustments to the neck are gentler and more precise than most people expect. Dr. Boss uses a small, specific movement to restore motion in the segments that have stopped moving. Some people feel their range come back right away. Others need several visits, and a few need imaging or a referral first. Some hear a pop, some do not, and neither tells you much about how well it worked.

Soft tissue work and massage therapy come next, because the muscles that have been guarding for months will pull the joint back to where it was if nobody addresses them.

Then come therapeutic exercises. This is the part that decides whether your neck stays better. Chin tucks, deep neck flexor work, and simple shoulder blade exercises rebuild the support that lets your head sit where it belongs. A few minutes a day beats an hour once a week.

We will also talk about your setup. Monitor height, phone position, and where your headrest sits in the car are small changes that remove hours of load per week. Fixing your neck for one hour in the clinic does not help much if the other one hundred and sixty hours fight it.

What to expect.

Your first visit runs about an hour. History, exam, the model, a plan, and a cost before you commit. We take most major plans and self-pay is available. Give us your plan details when you book and we will check your coverage before you arrive.

A neck that got stiff over a single bad week often loosens in a handful of visits. A neck that has been forward for fifteen years takes longer, and the exercise piece matters more. Dr. Boss will give you a realistic count at the start. If your headaches are part of the picture, read about headaches and migraines, because they usually improve together.

More reading: chiropractic care for neck pain and how to sit at work without paying for it.

Reviewed and approved by Dr. Christopher Boss, DC, Doctor of Chiropractic since 1998 and the treating chiropractor at Boss Chiropractic. Last updated September 11, 2026.

This page is general information, not medical advice. What is right for you depends on your exam. Dr. Boss will tell you straight whether we can help, and where to go if we cannot.