“Many times, arthritic facets will not be painful even with advanced arthritis. However, the wear of the facets will allow some increased play in the “doorstop mechanism”. This sloppiness can allow a forward slip of one vertebra on the other and will increase the strain on the disc. This, in turn can lead to annular tears of the disc, which then starts the degenerative cascade of degenerative disc disease. In addition, the wear of the facets can allow a forward slip of the vertebra above on the vertebra below leading to degenerative spondylolisthesis. This shifting can cause local neck instability pain or can cause intermittent compression of the nerve roots or even spinal cord compression”
I printed this topic before 5 months from your website
also read this ,i see some started of instability in T1 also in xr (it is look like somethings of started instability of c3-4 (but this not look like one slipped on another ,it look like
the c3 and c2 are more back in PLL LINE
the started of instability causes (probably also by losses of the ligamentum c3-4
because this ligament very important to instability.