Question: I am 70+. I experience an 'upper' neck pain clearly related to posture, and developing fastest when for example hunching over a book for several minutes. It develops gradually, the most severe pain spreads to the top of the neck and the bottom of the head also affecting other areas. It becomes very painful to turn the head, and gets unbearable when trying to sneeze, caught, or when trying to sip the tea, or chew on something. It is painful to to open the mouth. Swallowing is very painful. Effort to overcome the pain reduces slightly the initial pain severity, and allows to swallow or sneeze, and after several minutes becomes bearable. The pain gets severe toward the evening. Lying position relieves the pain. Sleeping is not adversely affected in any way, and in the morning the pain is minimal, negligible, felt only in the neck when moving the head, and no jaw and throat pain is present at all. Activities like walking and standing, even running appear not to cause the condition. Unfortunately hunched position cannot be entirely avoided, and it takes only few minutes of such position to develop the pain.
I want to know what are the causes, and what is the prognosis.

Thank you for the diagnosis. I would like to know how the cervical nerve compression causes the jaw/throat/swallowing problem.