Question
I have c1-2 pain referring to face, to the scapular region, traps and general shoulder.  This has been going off and on for 9 years or so.  It has been gone for about a year, but now is back again.  I have been to general chiropractor, orthopedic doc, pain speacialist(gave me a shot) and then finally to a chiropractor that practiced COX tech.  He helped after just two visits, but have sinced moved and the nearest person is him and that is two hours away.  There is a noticeable bump with palpation.  It always seems to have that need to pop feeling.  My question is what type of doc should I go to?  I neurologist, someone that deals with the spine or who?  I need to get this figured out.  I am a male, 32 years old, 6 foot and 180 pounds and fairly good shape.  Any advice?  Thanks

Answer
Thank you for your question. Right off the bat the complaints that you have from the information given are directly related to the brain stem. There are 12 cranial nerves that come off the brain stem, the complaint of facial pain is cranial nerve 5 and 7. The pain in the traps/shoulder area is cranial nerve 11.

The sensation for your neck to pop is most commonly due to body imbalance as a result of head and neck misalignment. This is what the Upper Cervical Doctor specializes in. When you have a slip, fall, accident, injury, trauma, and in some cases abuse something that caused one of those top two neck bones to misalign it will squeeze down on the brain stem preventing proper brain to body communication very commonly resulting in problems you are describing.

On average most people have had head and neck misalignment for 10-15 years before they even start having symptoms. I see you have had this problem off and on for 9 years now.

With the information given the Doctor you should look for is an Upper Cervical Doctor someone who specializes in the upper neck. The best website at this time is www.uppercervicalcare.com you can find an Upper Cervical Doctor near you.