Tri-Core Ergonomic Cervical Pillow for Neck Pain Relief Full Size Firm WH

Normally I would not give a product 5 stars if I didn't think that it was perfect, but this product is an exception. In early June I woke up one morning with a sore neck. A day later the area around my shoulder blade was extremely painful. The next day, my elbow started hurting. I'm not someone who usually has aches and pains, so I just figured that I had some kind of injury that would go away on its own. A week later, the pain was no better so I called my family physician to set up an appointment. The soonest that I could get an appointment was a week and half out. Several days after calling for the appointment, the pain was getting worse so I went to one of the immediate care places in the area. The doctor there said that I had three totally unrelated problems - wry neck, an injured rotator cuff, and tendonitis. It seemed strange that I would suddenly go from having no pain related problems to having three problems, but I went ahead and tried the exercises and prescription strength anti-inflammatory that he prescribed. Neither did anything to relieve the pain. The night before I was scheduled to see my family physician, the pain in my shoulder blade and elbow was bad enough that I could not get to sleep. I reached over my shoulder and started to press in various places to try to pinpoint where the shoulder pain was so that I could show my doctor the next day. Suddenly the pain in my shoulder blade and elbow went away. Having the pain go away in my shoulder blade was surprising, but not nearly as surprising as having the pain in the elbow go away. After a few minutes, the pain started to come back. I pressed on the same spot, and the pain once again went away. The next day when I saw my doctor and mentioned this, he said that I had a rhomboid trigger point and that trigger points could cause pain to be felt in areas other than at the trigger point itself. He prescribed various exercises that I could do to reduce the pain. The exercises made the pain bearable for a few more weeks, but gradually they became less and less effective. I researched rhomboid trigger points and found that massage therapy sometimes helps so I booked an appointment with a massage therapist. He gave me an intensive deep tissue massage. That made the pain go away... for two days. I then decided to try a chiropractor. The first appointment helped... for two hours. The second appointment helped... for one hour. I went with my wife to visit family three hours away. While there, the pain was so bad that I had to go back to the hotel room and lay with an ice pack on my shoulder blade to make it bearable. Again, I am not someone who usually has a lot of trouble with pain. I've had wisdom teeth cut out and didn't even need a Tylenol. But this constant pain was getting pretty old. I went to the chiropractor once again, and it helped, but this time the pain relief literally lasted less than five minutes. I called my family physician again, but was unable to get an appointment for two weeks. A few days later, the pain was so bad that I literally could not type or drive for more than a couple of minutes at a time. Since I still had a week and a half to go until I could get in to see my family physician, I went back to the chiropractor and told him that the treatments were just not working and that we needed to do something else. He said that I could have a pinched nerve at the C7 vertebrae. He (and the other two doctors plus massage therapist) had previously ruled that out since I was missing some of the classic symptoms. He said that the next thing was to send me to a spine specialist. Since the first thing that the specialist would probably want to do would be to get a cervical MRI, the chiropractor went ahead and ordered one so that the results would be available on the first visit to the specialist. Several days later, I showed up at the hospital for my scheduled MRI appointment. The pain at that point was bad enough that for the last several nights, I had not been able to sleep for more than a few hours a night. The MRI technician carefully positioned my head and neck and began the MRI. After several minutes of lying on the table perfectly motionless, I started to fall asleep. Anyone who has had an MRI knows that listening to the extremely loud sounds of MRI equipment is not exactly a relaxing experience. The reason that I started to fall asleep was because the pain was gone. After several sleepless nights, I was so exhausted that it didn't matter that the MRI equipment was pounding in my head. As I lay there on the MRI table, I started to wonder what could have made the pain go away. I'm no expert on MRI's but I had never heard of them being used for pain relief. It dawned on me that maybe it was the way that the MRI technician had carefully placed my head and neck. As soon as I got home, I went on Amazon and searched for cervical pillows. I found this one and placed an order with overnight shipping. The next day, I got a call from the chiropractor who said that the results of the MRI had come back. I was diagnosed with spondylosis and probable foraminal stenosis. He made an appointment for me with a spine specialist, but the soonest opening was in three weeks. The pillow came in the same day. It was uncomfortable for my neck when I first tried it, but I stuck with it for several hours before going back to my regular pillow. The next morning, I woke up pain free but the pain returned a few hours later. That night, I stuck with the pillow for most of the night. The next morning I again woke up pain free, but this time the pain relief lasted the whole day! After living with increasingly severe pain for two and a half months, I had finally found something that seemed to work. Three weeks have passed since the pillow came in and I finally went to see the spine specialist today. He said that since I had not had any pain problems for the last several weeks, to just keep doing what I am doing and that I did not need to see him again. So what things about the pillow are not perfect? The pillow barely fits into a standard size pillow case. That, in itself, would not be a problem, but I have to use an anti-allergy pillow cover because I am allergic to dust mites. If you put a standard size pillow cover on the pillow in addition to the pillow case, it scrunches up the smaller neck support to the point where it does not work right. I worked around this by ordering a 30 by 30-Inch Allersoft Square Cotton Pillow Cover (also from Amazon). The very loose fit of the pillow cover on the pillow allows for enough extra material that your head can still fit down in the head cradle without scrunching up the smaller neck support. Also, the side sleeping parts of the pillow do not seem as comfortable as my regular pillow. Still, for giving me pain relief after two and a half months of increasing pain, I give this product FIVE STARS!!

My body is pretty much a mess and a good night's sleep is hard to get due to past injuries. I am both a back sleeper (due to a broken lumbar vertebra and misaligned cervical vertebrae) and a side sleeper (left side due to two reconstructive surgeries in my right shoulder and some broken ribs on the right side). I spent years sleeping directly on the floor without a mattress and with my legs raised to prevent my spine seizing up. I have tried pretty much every "orthopedic" pillow on the market since the mid-'90s and most work well for either back or side sleep - claims regarding pillow comfort are generally greatly exaggerated. Only the Core Products pillows (recommended by my chiropractor) actually delivered on their promise to provide sufficient support no matter how you like to sleep. Tempurpedic is great for mattresses but terrible for neck support as it compresses quickly and stops providing support after about a half hour. And some of the dedicated high-tec pillows are great once you're "in position" but just too uncomfortable when shifting body position during the night, with the result that I would wake up many times each night. I've been using the large version of the TriCore for years but it doesn't fit easily in any of my pillow cases and it's just a couple inches too wide for me - when I roll onto my side my cheek doesn't quite make it up onto the thicker side padding. So when it came time to replace it I went with the medium size and it's perfect. In order to pick the best size for you, try lying on your back with a piece of paper under your head, then rolling to one side, mark where the tip of your nose is above the paper, then do the same thing on the other side. That gives you the best pillow width for your body. As far as the firmness/ thickness of the cervical roll, that's a little tougher to figure out before buying, but the nice thing about the TriCores is that every pillow has two options - one of the long edges of the pillow has a very firm cervical roll, the other has a softer cervical roll. I actually use my TriCore "upside down" (compared to the product photo and compared to the intended sleeping position). The company doesn't do a very good job of telling people just how adaptable this pillow is. If it doesn't work in one position, flip it over and try it the other way. It takes a few nights to get used to any new pillow design. I'm one of those people who said "I've never a met a pillow too firm for me" so I ordered the standard (firm) density on this new TriCore - lo and behold, the (intended) cervical roll was too firm for me, but the roll along the other edge was perfect. That actually works out great because as the pillow compresses over time, I will eventually shift to the firmer edge of the pillow. I know how frustrating it can be to lose sleep because you're fighting the pillow's design. This pillow was the right solution for me. I hope it works for you too.

About a couple years ago I began experimenting with pillows, because the standard pillows I had were annoying me in a number of ways. They were too soft, even the supposedly "extra firm" pillows I bought. So when I slept on my side, I'd have to fold the side of the pillow under itself in order to get any decent firmness. And invariably over time even that wouldn't work, because the material would always wear out. I often found myself sleeping with my arm tucked under the pillow, but that would cause my arm to lose blood circulation. It was really sub-optimal no matter what I tried and no matter what pillow I used. I'm a light sleeper, too, so that made it even worse. Then I tried out one of those memory foam pillows with the two bumps in it. Actually, I think I bought a cheap foam rubber version rather than true memory foam. It was a lot more firm than the normal pillows, so I thought it would do well. Pretty quickly, however, I found myself waking up with a stiff, sore neck. It was so bad that I just couldn't even turn my head any more than about 20 degrees. And that was every single day practically, for almost a year. Memory foam or latex foam would have done the same thing, I believe. Finally I decided to buy one of these Tri-core pillows. Immediately, the next day my neck pain had completely gone away. I thought it was a fluke, but I've had this pillow for about a month now, and so far no neck pain. What I really like about it is its firmness. It's about as firm as you can get without it being hard. It makes all the regular "extra firm" pillows seem like they're actually "extra soft". And firmness is a good thing. Without that firmness, your head just collapses down into the bed, and it causes your neck to get bent at an awkward angle, which leads to neck pain and sleeping problems. On the other hand, you don't want it to be too firm. That would just cause pain. This Tri-core pillow has just enough give (softness) to allow you to rest easily without pressure points digging into your face, ears, and head. I like that. I'm a side and back sleeper. The instructions say to sleep right on the edge of the pillow if you're sleeping on the side, and in the middle of the pillow if you're sleeping on your back. But I don't always find myself following those instructions. I just naturally find a "sweet spot" somewhere between the middle and edge when sleeping on my side. But sleeping perfectly on the edge is good too. The point I'm making is that there are subtle variations in the depth and angle of the pillow and the way it makes you feel. You may have to play with it a bit to find out what makes you feel the best. I don't know how this pillow will perform over the long-term, since I've only had it a month now. But so far it doesn't appear to be losing any of its firmness. Or if it is, it's not enough to really notice. I'm sure it won't last forever. But at this price, you can afford to buy a new one when that day comes. I highly recommend giving it a try. UPDATE June 11, 2012: --------------------- It has been a while since I reviewed this pillow, and I've had a chance to try other pillows since then. It must be about a year and a half or so since I bought this product. I've been using it ever since. Here's an update. First of all, I want to say that the product has held up remarkably well. There's not much softening, wearing, or indentation of the pillow at all. It remains very firm despite using it more or less continuously the entire time. So that's very good. But it hasn't been all good. At first it was great. But little by little the pillow started annoying me in different ways. Mostly, the trapezoidal depression in the middle of the pillow proved more difficult to tolerate than I wanted. I would often wake up in the middle of the night, because I was fighting with the pillow to find the best spot for my head. You can't just roll over in your sleep, because you'll end up in the hole with no support whatsoever. It's great if you never roll over. It's also good if you only sleep on your back and one side but not the other side. For example, if you go back and forth between sleeping on your back and your left side, but never your right side, then that's okay. But going from the left to the right side is not going to be easy. And because it's not easy, it requires some thought, which will actually wake you up. Something else that annoyed me about this pillow was the thickness of the pillow on the sides. I'm all for support. Support is a real problem with most pillows. This pillow has super support. However, the fact that it was too thick for me meant that it felt a bit too firm at times. I wanted to compress the pillow down with my head, but because it's so firm, I couldn't. So if I were making a wish list of future improvements, I wish this pillow didn't have the hole in the middle. I just want a constant thickness throughout the pillow. And I would like it to be a bit less thick. And it would be nice if it had a thin top layer of memory foam or something just to relieve pressure points a bit better. Because of these irritations, I'm now removing one star. I used to rate it at 5 stars. I now rate it at 4 stars. On the plus side, it never caused neck problems. It was great in that respect. It is still a very good and dependable pillow that I recommend trying, especially for its price. In the meanwhile, I recently purchased an excellent pillow that solves all of the problems I've seen with pillows. It's called the IntelliPillow. It's made with "intelli-gel". You can find it at: [...] That IntelliPillow is much more expensive, but in my opinion at this time, no other pillow beats it. If you're trying one pillow after another with no luck, it might be better to buy the IntelliPillow and be done with it. Might save you money in the long run. I just wish Amazon was selling it so I could review it. Hope that helps!

I suffer from MS and Fibromyalgia. As a result have a lot of issues with my neck, and frequently have debilitating neck pain that takes me down for days at a time. I ordered this pillow after reading some of the reviews on here, but at the same time, I was a little dubious, as often a product doesn't measure up to all the hype. That was not the case here. From the first night I used this pillow, I had a wonderful, relaxing sleep and woke up with no neck tension or pain. I'm not a back-sleeper; I generally sleep on my side and toward my stomach. But regardless of what position you sleep in, this pillow keeps your head positioned so that it's not angled and so that your neck is not stressed. There are side cushions that gently cushion your head when you sleep on your sides or your back. The funny thing is that there is a scooped out section in the middle where your head goes, and if you feel the thickness of the actual pillow in that area, it's pretty thin. You'd think that it wouldn't offer much support or cushion, but once you lay on it, you can't get over how comfortable it feels. At the top and bottom of the pillow is an area that gently cushions the neck. Again, whether you're laying on your side or your back, it supports your neck so that your had stays virtually horizontal. For me this is critical. Other, conventional pillows tend to angle the head up so that the chin is down toward the chest (if you're on your back) or if sleeping on your side, the pillow angles your head sideways toward your shoulder - this is very bad if you already suffer from neck problems. Since many of us spend a lot of our day looking down at a PC or down at our phones, this is the source of many of the neck problems we suffer from. This pillow does just the opposite, by holding the head at the proper angle. I used to go in once a month to my Neurologist to get triggerpoint injections in my neck because the pain in my neck, and radiating up over my head was so severe. Since I started using this pillow, I haven't had to go back for any triggerpoint injections. I realize this may not work for everyone, but for me, this pillow has been a godsend. I have so say that I'm really very surprised at how great it feels to lay on - so relaxing. If you suffer from chronic neck problems or even if you just are looking for a more comfortable pillow to sleep on, I highly recommend it.

I love this pillow, especially considering it's half the price of many others I've tried! If you're reading this, probably like me you've been locked in a long quest for the perfect pillow... My neck seems to get worse with age and I've tried so many pillows, some were ok but none were great. This "Core Products Cervical Support Pillow" is the best I've tried, I'm super happy with it! The divet for your head is perfect for back sleepers, and each edge is plush and several inches wide so it's also really comfortable for side sleeping (I tend to be on my side to fall asleep but once asleep always end up on my back!) I've gone through about ten pillows in the last few years trying to find a great one, and ended up with a few memory foam ones (including the expensive ones like Tempurpedic) but none really did the trick... I finally spent hours and hours researching it online and found that most professionals caution against memory foam as it's too firm and doesn't adjust enough to your body as you move in the night. For back sleepers, many recommend rolling up a towel and putting that under your neck with no pillow. Well, that's a bridge too far for me, but this looked like the closest.... really plush but supportive material and the "lip" serves the exact same purpose as that rolled-up towel without being "weird" haha. As it's not memory foam, the "lip" part should adjust to your weight and size accordingly so I bet this pillow will be great for a lot of you... One thing, I'm not a full time side sleeper, but if you are, you might be able to find a better option (this review is for the "Firm Cervical Support Pillow"); the prominent head divet appears to be primarily for back sleeping. But for us back or hybrid sleepers with neck problems, this one's been utterly fantastic!

It’s hard to give something like a pillow a star rating, when everyone’s opinion is so objective. Here are my thoughts. I’m used to a flat pillow, which is great for my neck when lying on my back. I struggle with migraines, and I do routinely have headaches with an overstuffed pillow. However, when I sleep on my side I don’t have the support I need with a flat pillow, so I decided to try this. It is well-made, and did not have smell. It was in sealed packaging. It is firmly stuffed, which most people probably need. However, that hurt my ear, and made it hard to sleep on the part I should be sleeping on for my side. I even would use the hole in the middle for my ear and it still hurt. I have a fairly long neck, so the head hole in the middle fit ok if I was careful, but for someone with a short neck it may not be placed correctly. There are two sides to the pillow for more or less beck support which is nice. Overall, it’s a nice product, but it did not work for me, so I’m returning it. Don’t let my experience discourage you if you think it may work for you—hopefully some of the details here will help!

I am female, 5'2", small frame. I have been having nerve pain in my neck, shoulders, and arms down to my hands. I have been to an orthopedist and physical therapist who recommended that I sleep either on my side or, preferably, on my back. I am naturally a stomach sleeper. I found this little pillow, which seemed perfect - a little indentation in the middle to help you stay on your back. I liked the size (length/width/spacing) of the pillow itself. My head felt snugly tucked away in the center. And there is enough space on the side portions to feel balanced comfortably while on your side. In theory it's a great idea, but in practice I unfortunately woke up more sore in the morning using this than I was without it. I have been using it off and on for about a month now. I find that when lying down, the part of my head that fits into the indentation hurts and I develop headaches. This is while resting the smaller side of the pillow under my neck, not the larger side. Maybe if there was slightly more padding in the center portion, this would help? There is very little padding. Possibly if you had a softer mattress (mine is firm) it would be OK as well. While lying on my side, in theory the side portions work great -- I can tell that there is extra space between my head and the mattress to leave room for my shoulder. And in theory it's amazing to have one pillow with different heights that you can switch between during the night. Unfortunately it's still uncomfortable for me sleeping on the side portions, and my arms go numb within seconds of laying on my side from the pressure on my shoulders. The nights I've managed to make it through the night sleeping on my back properly with this pillow, I've woken up excruciatingly sore, feeling in real need of a massage!! And also with a headache! So I think this pillow is a great idea, but didn't work for me. I wanted to post this review for others who are investigating this pillow for nerve pain / nerve impingement. Maybe give it a shot if you have the budget -- it's inexpensive -- but it may not be the ticket. Good luck!!!

A little history first just for context. In the last 6 years, I have gone from being well over 350lbs to a more reasonable 240lbs. Along with this weight transformation, my sleeping habits changed from being more of a stomach sleeper to now more of a back & side sleeper. During this transition in my sleeping habits, I always felt more comfortable sleeping on my back or side and always seemed to wake up feeling more rested than when I slept on my stomach. The problem was that sleeping on my back and side was causing a substantial amount of neck pain and a burning sensation on the back of my head from the pressure of a traditional pillow. I still find myself sleeping on my stomach at times but not near as much as I used to. Now about this pillow. This pillow is not the shape of a traditional pillow and has a larger outer rim to cradle the neck and allow the head to rest more naturally position. Whether I am sleeping on my back or side, my neck and head rest more naturally than with a traditional pillow. This more natural position of my head and neck has eliminated the burning sensation and neck pain. Since using this pillow I sleep more soundly throughout the night now more than ever. I still have a traditional pillow that I use to help prop me up in bed when reading or watching tv and do find myself grabbing for it sometimes when I find myself sleeping on my stomach. I would still recommend for this reason to hang on to your favorite traditional pillow. I can still find a comfortable position on my stomach with this pillow but tend to use the outer rim in those situations and not the way the pillow was intended for use. What I don’t like, or think can be improved is the outer rim is extremely firm and a little large for me. I am not sure if it's just my imagination or not, but I think one side of the pillow is thicker than the other so if the pillow gets turned when making the bed, I might be uncomfortable for a bit until I turn the pillow around. If there were two different sizes of the outer rim and an option on firmness, I think I would be able to dial in a perfect fit. I understand that the firmness is needed to support the neck and I am not saying I’d like a super soft outer rim just slightly less firm so my neck can rest more easily. Overall, I am very pleased with this pillow, and like I said before the burning sensation and neck pain have been eliminated. If any of this sounds familiar, I would highly recommend this pillow.

I took a long while musing over the non-conventional pillows available. I think it was worth it. I took to this one straight away, though I was a little concerned that it seems a bit low and, obviously, you use only one. However, it performs as described - it's comfortable and has removed what I now realized has been my problem of having too many pillows, forcing me to restrict my breathing when I move into uncomfortable positions. Having one pillow that retains its shape gives you a constant support all night, every night. The only downside would be that you might have to buy a large pillowcase for it, but so what?

It is not ergonomic and not support neck properly. Practically by increasing neck curve will increase/induced snoring.

No t for me little thick for my disc

Aunque esta es la versión supuestamente más blanda que su hermana mayor sigue siendo demasiado dura. Probé el modelo duro y no he encontrado diferencia alguna. A mí personalmente no me ha gustado, de hecho, los dos modelos han terminado en la basura.

Me funcionó exactamente como necesito, llevo usándolo un mes a esta fecha