Hi all, I had some x Ray's done by a private chiropractor and it shows that my c1 virtibre rests at an angle. My jaw is also off as my bite juts to one side. My jaw has been this way my whole life, or most of it. My upper spine shows a slight kink. I've shown this to a neurologist and he didn't seem to think it's a cause for concern. My question is, should I be having this corrected or is it best left well alone?

I'm still suffering from pcs at 13 months post injury.

This work is done primarily by Nucca workers...working on the Atlas aka C1. My friend is looking into this as her neck has been frozen for 5 yrs since hip replacement and rehab experience. I've known about this atlas work but don't know anyone who has done it. Could help, but ......

Everything we try is a chance.

Why did a chiro do an x-ray if he was not planning on treating what he found ?

What did the chiro recommend ?

Some general chiros can help with C-1. Sometimes, you need to find a NUCCA or Atlas Orthogonal chiro. The Vitamins sticky has links to a referral database of each type of chiro.

What symptoms are you having and can they be related to your neck ?

btw, 999 out of 1000 times, an MD will discount anything a chiro says.

Mark,

He of course recommended a course of neck twisting treatment, which I wasn't happy about having, the procedure seems too forceful to me. The treatment amounted to around £800, which is amazingly expensive. I think the right side of the soft tissues in my neck are damaged which causes a tight feeling at the back of it. This gets exacerbated with concentration. I'm not 100% sure, but I think my neck has always been like this, the blow to the head may have exacerbated the issue, however.

Good decision. Stay away from that chiro. No chiro can reliably set up a treatment plan like that one tried to do.

As you said, the twist the head and pop the neck treatment is too forceful.

Do you sleep on your side ?

Some gentler treatments with you following that with disciplined sleep and rest posture (neck as straight as possible) will be much better. No chiro treatment will work if one does not follow with good neck posture discipline, too. It takes many weeks or even months of discipline while sleeping to allow the ligaments to strengthen and tighten to hold proper C-1 position.

Some videos on actual Upper cervical adjusting -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9fGT-gaxzA

no twisting needed..

Possibly some of your kinks or misalignments could be from birth or some anomaly..
but I would try a skilled upper cervical a few times and see if anything improves.. don't sign up for a set plan or time frame.
Each case is different. Upper cervical alone - may not be what you need. Some of the practitioners only do upper cervical and nothing else.. I feel that is a mistake by those practitioners.

My chiro used a drop table and leg length checks for the c1 c2, he also did gentle /careful standard adjustments and used other modalities for soft tissue treatment.
I do feel he was one of the highly skilled healer types..multi talented..

I do sleep on my side, you would recommended sleeping on my back? Also, I'm not sure if this is related to my injury or not, but tonight I've been noticing some weird 'lights' buzzing around in my right side periferal vision. Kind of look like when somebody shines their watch face to reflect the sun. Never had that before. When I look, they vanish.

A lot depends on your pillow/mattress combo.
The best pillow is what fits you, and how you sleep.
And a worn out mattress is bad all around..

It's all about how your head gets angled pillow too high, too soft ?
side sleeper - w/ large shoulders or small shoulders?

a few info sites-
http://www.wikihow.com/Choose-a-Pillow
http://www.pillowadvisor.co.uk/how-t...illow-for-you/
http://www.ultimatesleep.com.au/expe...-right-pillow/

My mattress is only a couple of years old, and it's a pretty decent one, although my wife hates it. My shoulders are fairly broad, pillow seems and OK height though. Problem is, it's difficult to know what I'm doing when asleep. For all I know I could be doing head stands! Except when I wake up. I always do that.

The point is to be sure your pillow holds your head straight with your spine. If your head hangs to the side, it would be difficult to get any benefit from a chiro or other treatment. I had to learn to sleep on my side.

You did not answer about your continuing symptoms, especially those that could be attributed to your neck. Head aches, maybe a vestibular issue, breathing (apnea) ??