Today’s health-conscious consumers have more choices than ever before in their pursuit of good health. While it’s good to have different options, too many choices can be overwhelming and lead to confusion. We need help. We need a framework for making the best choices. One area of growing confusion is orthopedic cervical pillows. As the number of orthopedic pillows on the market has grown, so has confusion about selecting the right pillow for your needs. The choice is easier to make by understanding that despite all of the orthopedic pillows available, there are really only two different categories: displacement and supportive.

Displacement vs. Supportive Pillows

Displacement pillows- use materials – such as memory foam or water – that conform or displace to accommodate the head and neck in their current state. Memory foam, a type of viscoelastic foam, compresses under the weight and warmth of the head and neck to conform to their shape, thereby accommodating an existing condition. Similarly, the water in a water pillow displaces to conform to a person’s head and neck. Displacement pillows will accommodate many distortions of the cervical spine to help stabilize an injury during an acute stage of care. Supportive or corrective pillows use the firm elasticity of resilient foams and fibers to provide support to the neck while softly cradling the head.

Supportive pillows- best used in the post-acute stages of care. Supportive pillows provide the resistance necessary to gently traction the neck, encouraging the return of the normal, neutral curve of the cervical spine.

Selection Process

To select or prescribe the best pillow among the displacement and supportive styles, patients and their doctors must determine the end benefit desired. Is the need to accommodate a recent injury or correct the cause of pain by restoring the natural neck curvature? Sometimes people just need to maintain a normal, healthy neck. Whatever the condition, the TriCare: Circle of Health can help determine the best pillow to meet a person’s physical needs.

Three Stages of Care: Circle of Health

When people first suffer an acute injury to the back or neck, they often contact a chiropractor for help. The doctor’s initial goal is to stabilize the injury for comfort. The chiropractor’s work to accommodate the injury prepares the patient for correction of the cause of the injury through hands-on treatment. Accommodation and correction represent two stages of a three-stage system of care. The third stage, maintenance, fulfills a circle of health.

Once an injury or discomfort improves, a person can enter the maintenance stage to ensure continued good health. At each stage of care – accommodate, correct and maintain – chiropractors and their patients will make different decisions regarding the selection of an orthopedic pillow to help in their treatment programs. The “circle” aspect of the TriCare system allows a person to enter at any stage. People manage their health care in different ways and may take different steps to address problems or maintain healthy necks and backs.

The circular nature of the TriCare figure shows the three stages of care – accommodate, correct and maintain – and represents the continuous nature of good health.

Accommodate- Helps provide comfort by conforming to and stabilizing the existing condition or disorder. Someone who suffers from an injury needs to feel comfortable. During the Accommodate Stage, a person needs a pillow that stabilizes the temporary condition or disorder. Displacement pillows work well at this stage because they conform to the condition and provide immediate comfort. Chiropractors could better serve their acute patients by recommending a displacement pillow for short-term use to stabilize the injury.

Correct- Helps eliminate symptoms by treating the cause of the disorder and restoring good health. After an injury, or with the realization that something isn’t quite right, a person enters the Correct Stage by searching for a remedy for the cause of the condition. Perhaps the issue is a loss of cervical curvature or chronic neck pain. In either case, a chiropractor can help. In addition to professional care, a supportive pillow can modify a person’s sleeping position. Supportive pillows help eliminate symptoms by helping resolve the cause of pain and reestablishing proper alignment. The supportive TriCore Pillow, with its trapezoid-shaped center and neck lobes, encourages proper sleeping form and helps restore the normal cervical curve. Corrective pillows can help alleviate headaches, neck muscle and joint strains, arthritis, and whiplash discomfort, and help restore proper nerve function. Doctors can help patients select the appropriate support level, firmness or neck lobe size of the pillow to appropriately align with patients’ health needs.

Maintain- Helps ensure good health by sustaining the body in its proper, natural state. Pillows selected in the Maintain Stage should ensure continued good health by helping sustain the body in its proper, natural alignment. For ideal maintenance, the pillow should provide maximum support and comfort. In fact, most people discover that once the normal curvature of the neck is restored, they crave the comfort of maximum support – the reason supportive pillows have grown more popular. As consumers have become more conscious of the benefits of restoring and preserving the healthy, normal curvature of the neck and spine, they have discovered that they sleep better at night and feel better during the day.

Sleeping Comfort

Cervical pillows help place your neck in its proper, most natural position. If you are new to using cervical pillows, your body may require some time to adapt, possibly a couple weeks. When using fiber pillows for back sleeping, start by using the smaller lobe. After several weeks, turn the pillow around and use the wider lobe, if needed. For side sleeping, use the raised sides. With foam, begin by using the pillow with the lobes down, sleeping on the flat side. This allows your body to gradually adjust to a cervical pillow. After several weeks, turn the pillow lobes up and sleep on the lobe that provides the best support while still being comfortable.

Natural Pain Relief- Our cervical pillows offer a drug-free way to help Accommodate, Correct and Maintain your cervical spine, giving you the proper sleeping posture needed to help relieve headaches, neck strains, arthritis and other ailments. These pillows accomplish this by helping support your head and neck in their most natural, neutral position. A proper sleeping posture can provide relief from, and help prevent nerve pressure and airway blockage (a major cause of snoring), and assist in recovery from whiplash and other neck injuries.

Back and Side Sleeping- Our uniquely shaped pillows offer incredible flexibility for both back and side sleepers. For back sleepers, your head is cradled in the center of the pillow allowing the lobe to support your neck in its most natural position. As you roll to your side onto the raised portion of the pillow, your head and neck are again properly supported. When rolling to your back, the center lets your head nestle for the greatest comfort and appropriate support.

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