Headache Treatment Oakville
For many of our Oakville Headache Patients, the holidays come with a little bit of stress. Whether it’s caused by hosting parties, over-crowded malls, or the mere thought of hanging out with your in-laws, stress can creep up on us this time of year. Our Oakville Chiropractors find our patients neck and shoulders carry a lot of this stress, and our suboccipitals are tiny muscles that can cause all sorts of headaches and neck pain when we feel stressed out! We have the headache treatment you need!
What are suboccipitals and why do they cause headaches?
The suboccipitals are a triangular group of muscles that sit at the base of the skull and attach onto our first and second vertebra. Our Oakville Chiropractors Dr. Steve and Dr. Jenn say they are responsible for tilting our head into an extended position and also assist in rotation. Call for headache treatment and get those muscles and joints loosened up!
Why Do The Suboccipitals cause Headaches?
Dr. Jenn says the most likely cause of trouble with the suboccipital muscles is poor posture. When we slouch and adopt a rounded shoulder position, our neck naturally would slouch forward as well. That means our head would be looking down if we didn’t compensate with other muscles. In order to keep looking straight ahead, our suboccipitals contract and help us keep looking straight ahead. We are treating this more and more during the Covid pandamic as children and adults are stuck on laptops and phones, If your kids are on the phone or computer more than an hour a day, get them in to get the treatment they need for their headaches. Poor posture is a problem for many people. This means that many people are likely suffering from tight suboccipitals muscles!
Getting headaches from using your phone too much? Get in to our Oakville Chiropractic Clinic and let us correct your problem with the best treatment possible. Text neck can cause irreversible damage to your spinal column. Please minimize your child’s time on all digital devices to avoid catastrophic spine consequences. More can be learned about Text Neck and Treatment in Oakville here.
When these muscles get tight, it causes a lot of tension at the base of the skull and the top of the neck. They also can refer pain behind the ear, into the temple and even behind the eye. A headache in these areas can be a result of tight suboccipital muscles!
How Our Oakville Chiropractic Team Treats Headaches?
Chiropractors have a lot of tools in their toolbox to treat the suboccipitals and headaches.
-
Soft Tissue Release
There are some specific muscle release techniques that will release these muscles. Gently compressing the muscles while rotating the head will stretch the muscles and help them relax.
-
Chiropractic Treatment – Adjustment
The suboccipitals connect your skull to your first two vertebra. When these muscles are tight and our head gets stuck in extension, it can irritate and stiffen up the joints at the top of the neck. There are specific adjustments for your top vertebra that can decrease the tension. Learn more about neck pain and headaches and chiropractic treatment in Oakville.
-
Acupuncture Treatment for Headaches
Acupuncture and acupressure are really helpful treatments for headaches. There are acupuncture points that go right into the suboccipitals at the back of the head. If you’re experiencing headaches, and these muscles are tight, acupuncture can work like magic! Wondering how acupuncture works? Check out our Oakville acupuncture information page!
-
Exercise and Stretching for Headaches
There are a lot of postural exercises that would help these muscles. They become overactive when our posture is poor, so correcting our posture works wonders at letting these muscles relax. Specifically, strengthening the muscles in the front of the neck make sure that the muscles in the back of the neck don’t fall into a shortened/tight position. There are a series of exercise progressions for the deep neck flexors that can influence the position and tension in the suboccipitals.
-
Doctor Approved Self Massage for Headaches
Using a tennis or lacrosse ball and pushing it into the muscles at the base of the skull can help ease tension in the suboccipitals. Try this technique laying down, or against the wall! Both of them are effective!
There are many ways that chiropractic can help with neck tension. Get a head start on treating your holiday stress and book an appointment with Dr. Steve or Dr. Jenn today!
-
Shockwave Treatment for Headaches
Our Doctors use shockwave to treat everything from headaches and neck pain to carpal tunnel and plantar fasciitis. Shockwave Therapy is a pneumatic gun that strikes the area of injury 15 times a second for 800 – 1600 impulses. Shockwave has been a game changer at our Oakville clinic for treating headaches. It helps loosen up muscles that have been overworked for decades and stimulates a massive amount of blood flow to the muscles and the effected area. Most headache treatment by our chiropractic team will start with IFC and heat, proceed to Shockwave and ART and finish with a manual chiropractic adjustment. We have had magic happen at our clinic when it comes to treating headaches. If you are someone you know in the Oakville area are suffering from Migraines or Tension Headaches get them in today, to get the headache treatment they need!