You might notice that your neck cracks on one side but not the other. This is a common phenomena and Vancouver chiropractor Dr. Troy Dreiling explains what is happening to you in this situation.
Video Transcription
Hey, this is Dr. Troy here at Zenaptic Chiropractic.
After 22 years in practice, I get countless questions. One of them being, how come my neck cracks on one side more than the other?
That’s a very simple explanation. It all comes down to joint function and joint physiology. Sometimes when we make an adjustment you don’t hear a cracking sound and sometimes when we move your neck side to side you might hear a popping or cracking sound. All that is is gas releasing inside of a joint.
So if you separate the joint enough or if it’s a mobile joint, that joint is going to tend to be noisier than the other joint.
One of the other common explanations is if you’ve had trauma on one side of your neck, there’s more scarring, more fibrosis, more adhesions, more gristle if you will. That joint is not going to move as much, therefore, it is not going to release the gas like a joint that is more functional and more mobile.
What can do about that? Big time, get adjusted that can help for sure. Also, work on your stretching, on exercises that we may give you in the office. There’s traction you can do and home molding exercises to help regain the balance and the function to the spinal joints.
