Does this sound like you?
Common signs
- Burning, shooting or electric pain running from the neck into the shoulder, arm or hand
- Pins and needles or numbness in particular fingers rather than the whole hand
- Weakness in the arm, or a grip that gives way when you carry something
- Symptoms on one side only
- Pain that eases when you rest the affected hand on top of your head
- Symptoms set off by turning or tilting your head towards the painful side
- Neck ache that is milder than the arm symptoms it arrives with
- Sleep broken by the arm rather than by the neck
This list describes the condition in general. It is not a diagnosis. Only an in-person assessment can tell you what is causing your symptoms.
What contributes to it
Why it happens
- Disc material pressing on a nerve root
- A bulging or herniated disc in the neck can press on a nerve root, or irritate it chemically, at the point where it leaves the spine. This is the more common picture in younger adults, and it is why the neck is examined carefully even when the hand is the part that bothers you.
- Narrowing of the opening the nerve passes through
- Age-related changes to the small joints and discs of the neck gradually reduce the space each nerve root travels through. Symptoms in this pattern tend to build slowly rather than arrive overnight, and they are often provoked by holding the head in one position for a long stretch.
- Sustained neck position and loading
- Long hours with the head held forward of the shoulders load the lower neck continuously. That rarely pinches a nerve on its own, but it is a common background finding, and it is usually the part of the picture a patient has most control over.
- A nerve irritated further along its path
- Not every arm symptom starts at the neck. The same nerve can be compressed further along its route, at the shoulder, the elbow or the wrist, and that produces a different pattern. Which fingers are involved, and which movements provoke it, is a large part of how the two are told apart during the examination.
How we help
Our approach
Finding which nerve, and where it is being pinched
Your first visit follows the Gonstead six-step assessment: history, visualisation, instrumentation with the nervoscope, palpation, and X-ray analysis where indicated. On this presentation your chiropractor adds neurological testing, checking reflexes, muscle strength and sensation across the areas each nerve root supplies. That part matters more here than on most pages, because a nerve problem leaves a pattern that a general neck examination on its own would miss.
Adjustment where the assessment supports it
If the examination points to a restricted segment contributing to the picture, the adjustment is specific to that level and delivered by hand, and your chiropractor will explain what they found before anything happens. Some presentations are not suitable for adjustment, and the assessment exists to catch that. If another healthcare provider would serve you better, you will be referred appropriately.
Rebuilding what the arm has lost
Where strength or endurance has dropped in the arm or the deep neck muscles, our physiotherapy side adds a graded programme to rebuild it, along with nerve mobility work where the assessment supports it. This is generally the slower half of the process, and the half that depends most on what you do between visits.
Changing what keeps loading it
Restoring movement to a stiff segment does not hold for long if the neck goes back to the position that irritated it for another eight hours a day. Desk and screen height, phone habits, how you sleep and how often you get up all get covered, because they are what decides whether an improvement lasts.
When to seek urgent care
See a doctor first if you have any of these
These need a medical assessment before you begin chiropractic care. If any apply to you, contact a doctor or go to the nearest emergency department.
- Weakness that is getting worse, or an arm or hand you cannot use properly
- Symptoms in both arms at the same time
- Clumsiness in the hands, difficulty with buttons or handwriting, or unsteadiness on your feet
- Loss of bladder or bowel control
- Neck or arm symptoms following a fall, a road accident, or a blow to the head or neck
- Fever, unexplained weight loss, or pain that wakes you every night
- Sudden severe neck pain with dizziness, visual disturbance, or difficulty speaking or swallowing
Frequently asked questions
What patients ask us
Is a pinched nerve the same thing as a slipped disc?
They are related but not the same. A slipped disc describes the disc itself bulging or herniating. A pinched nerve describes what can happen next, if that disc material or a narrowed opening presses on a nerve root. You can have a disc change on a scan with no nerve symptoms at all, and you can have nerve symptoms from a cause other than a disc. Which one you are dealing with is what the examination sorts out.
How do I know whether my arm symptoms come from my neck or my wrist?
The pattern usually gives it away. A nerve compressed at the neck tends to produce symptoms that follow one strip down the arm and involve particular fingers, and it is often provoked by neck movement. A nerve compressed at the wrist tends to stay in the hand, and is often worse at night or when gripping. There is genuine overlap, and some people have both at once, so we test for both rather than assuming.
Will an adjustment make a pinched nerve worse?
It depends entirely on the presentation, which is why the assessment comes first and why not every neck gets adjusted. Where there are signs that the spinal cord rather than a single nerve root is involved, or where weakness is progressing, hands-on care is not the right first step and you will be sent for medical review instead. Tell us about any weakness, clumsiness or recent trauma when you book, so we can screen for it properly.
Do I need an MRI before I come in?
No. Bring one if you already have it, along with any report, because it saves repeating work. Most people do not need advanced imaging to begin with, and a scan on its own tells us less than you would expect without the examination alongside it. Disc changes show up on scans of plenty of people who have no symptoms whatsoever, so the findings only mean something in context.
How long does it usually take to settle?
It varies with the cause, how long it has been there, and how much the nerve is loaded day to day, so we will not quote you a number before examining you. Symptoms present for a few weeks generally behave differently from symptoms present for a year. Your chiropractor will give you a realistic picture based on your own findings rather than a general figure.