Orthopedic vs Cervical vs Memory Foam Pillow: Which Is Right for You?

Search for a pillow for neck pain in India and three words follow you everywhere: orthopedic, cervical and memory foam. Shopping apps stack all three into one product title. The shopkeeper uses them as if they were interchangeable. Your physiotherapist may have said "get an orthopedic pillow", your cousin swears by her "cervical pillow", and the advertisement on your phone is for a "memory foam contour pillow" that claims to be all three at once.

The confusion is not your fault. These three words describe three different things, and once you see which is which, most of the pillow shelf stops looking like a puzzle. This guide is the long, honest comparison: what each term actually means, the shapes and materials hiding behind the labels, how each behaves through an Indian summer and monsoon, what they cost in rupees, who each one suits, and what a pillow really costs you per night over three years.

Every category here has a real place, and no single pillow is right for every body. If you first want the basic difference between a shaped pillow and an ordinary one, our comparison of a cervical pillow and a normal pillow covers that ground; this article picks up where it leaves off.

Orthopedic, Cervical, Memory Foam: Why the Three Names Confuse Everyone

Here is the single most useful idea in this article: the three words are not three options on the same menu. They answer three different questions.

• "Orthopedic" answers: what is it for? It is a purpose. An orthopedic pillow is any pillow whose maker says it is designed to keep your bones and joints, mostly the spine, in a healthier position while you sleep. The word says nothing about shape or material.
• "Cervical" answers: which part of the body? Cervical means the neck region of the spine, the seven small bones between your skull and your shoulders. A cervical pillow is an orthopedic pillow whose whole focus is the neck. Every cervical pillow is orthopedic in intent, but not every orthopedic pillow is cervical: there are orthopedic knee pillows, lumbar pillows and wedge pillows too.
• "Memory foam" answers: what is it made of? It is a material, full stop. Memory foam can be moulded into a cervical pillow, a plain rectangular pillow, a scooter seat or a mattress topper. Calling a pillow "memory foam" tells you how it will feel under your palm, not whether it will hold your neck at the right height.

So when a listing reads "orthopedic cervical memory foam pillow", it is really saying: a pillow meant for spinal alignment, focused on the neck, made of memory foam. That is a perfectly sensible description. The trouble begins when people treat the three words as competing types and ask which is best, as if a purpose, a body part and a material could be ranked against one another.

Once you separate the three, the real comparison becomes visible. What you are actually choosing between is a handful of shapes, a handful of materials, and, the part most guides skip, whether the pillow's height was chosen for an average person or for you. We will take those one at a time.

A quick decoder for shop labels

Here is how the common shelf phrases usually translate:

• "Orthopedic pillow" — usually a firm, fixed-shape pillow, often contoured, often memory foam or high-density foam. Sometimes just a firm fibre pillow wearing a medical-sounding name.
• "Cervical pillow" — a pillow built around the neck's curve. Could be a contour block, a small roll, a butterfly cut-out, or a made-to-size pillow.
• "Memory foam pillow" — a pillow made of slow-recovery foam. Could be shaped or plain. On its own it tells you nothing about neck support.
• "Made-to-size" or "customised pillow" — a pillow whose height and shape come from your body measurements rather than from a standard mould. A separate category, and we give it its own section later.

What Is an Orthopedic Pillow?

An orthopedic pillow is a pillow designed with the skeleton in mind. The name borrows from orthopaedics, the branch of medicine dealing with bones, joints and muscles, and the promise is that the pillow will keep your head, neck and spine in a neutral line rather than letting them bend for seven or eight hours a night.

In practice the label is used loosely in India. Some orthopedic pillows are carefully shaped contour blocks. Others are ordinary rectangular pillows that happen to be firm. Because there is no standard a maker must meet before printing "orthopedic" on the packet, the word is best read as a statement of intention rather than a promise of fit.

What a good orthopedic pillow does well

The good ones share a few traits. They are firm enough not to flatten under the weight of your head. They keep their shape night after night, so the height you chose is the height you actually sleep on. Many are contoured, which gives the neck a raised ridge to rest against when you lie on your back.

Where an orthopedic pillow can let you down

The weakness is the word "average". A factory mould produces one height and one neck ridge for everybody. If your neck is longer or shorter than the mould assumed, or your shoulders broader or narrower, the ridge lands in the wrong place and the pillow is either too tall or too low. Firmness then works against you: a soft pillow at the wrong height at least squashes into something tolerable, while a firm pillow at the wrong height holds your neck firmly in the wrong position until morning.

Our dedicated page on the orthopedic pillow goes further into how to tell a genuinely supportive orthopedic design from a firm pillow with a clever name.

What Is a Cervical Pillow?

A cervical pillow is an orthopedic pillow that has narrowed its ambition to one job: supporting the cervical spine, the curve of your neck. That single focus is why cervical pillows come in such odd shapes. A plain rectangle supports the head; a cervical pillow is trying to support the space between the head and the shoulders, which is a different problem altogether.

The logic is easy to feel for yourself. Lie flat on the floor without a pillow and slide your hand under your neck: there is a gap. That gap is the natural curve of your neck, and on your back the neck needs something under it, not the head. Now roll to your side: the gap has vanished, but your head is hanging down towards the floor because your shoulder is in the way. On your side the head needs a pillow as thick as your shoulder is broad. A cervical pillow is any pillow that takes those two facts seriously.

Fixed-shape cervical pillows

Most cervical pillows sold in India are fixed-shape: a contoured foam block, a roll, or a butterfly cut-out. They aim at both problems with one moulded shape. When the mould happens to match your neck and shoulders they work beautifully; when it does not, they are simply a firm pillow with a bump in an unhelpful place. This is why so many people report that a friend's cervical pillow "did nothing" for them while the friend cannot sleep without it.

Made-to-size cervical pillows

A smaller group of cervical pillows are sized to the person rather than to an average. Neckfit's pillows belong here: the neck-support height comes from your neck length and the head-support thickness from your shoulder broadness, chosen from 24 sizes. The shape idea is the same as a fixed cervical pillow; the difference is that the numbers are yours. For the fuller picture of what a properly fitted cervical pillow may and may not do for you, see our page on cervical pillow benefits.

What Is a Memory Foam Pillow?

Memory foam is a polyurethane foam that softens with warmth and pressure. Press your palm into it and the hand-print lingers for a few seconds before slowly fading; that slow recovery is the "memory". Under a sleeping head it means the foam gradually moulds around the skull and neck instead of pushing back, which many people find pleasantly enveloping.

Memory foam arrived in Indian bedrooms mostly through contour pillows, so many buyers assume "memory foam" and "cervical pillow" mean the same thing. They do not. A memory foam pillow can be a flat rectangle with no neck support whatsoever, and a cervical pillow can be made of latex, fibre or buckwheat hulls without a gram of memory foam. The material is one ingredient, not the recipe.

How memory foam behaves across an Indian night

Its behaviour changes with temperature, and that matters here more than in the cold countries where the material became popular. On a cool January night in Delhi or Pune, memory foam starts firm and takes a minute or two to soften. On a May night in Nagpur or Chennai under a ceiling fan it can go soft within seconds and sink further than you expected, so the same pillow is effectively a different height in different seasons.

The three complaints people mention most

It sleeps warm, because dense foam traps body heat against the head. It can carry a chemical smell for the first days or weeks, stronger when it arrived vacuum-packed in a small box. And it cannot be washed; only the cover comes off. None of these is a deal-breaker for everyone, but each one weighs more in a hot, humid climate. Our page on the memory foam pillow weighs these points in more detail, including who still does well on it.

Which Pillow Shape Is Best for Neck Pain?

Shape is where the three labels finally turn into something you can hold. Almost every pillow marketed for neck pain in India comes in one of five shapes, and each shape makes a different assumption about your body.

Contour (wave) pillow

The familiar shape: a raised ridge along one long edge, a shallow dip for the head, and a lower ridge along the other edge so you can flip it and choose the height that feels better. It is designed mainly for back sleeping, with the ridge tucked under the neck. On the side, the ridge usually ends up under the ear rather than the neck, and the overall height rarely matches a broad shoulder. Best for committed back sleepers of roughly average build.

Butterfly (cut-out) pillow

A contour pillow with the corners scooped out and extra height at the wings. The idea is that the centre serves back sleeping while the taller wings serve side sleeping. It is a thoughtful attempt at one shape for two positions, but the wing height is still a single fixed number, so it suits the people whose shoulders happen to match it and frustrates the rest.

Roll (bolster) pillow

A small cylinder, used on its own under the neck or tucked inside an ordinary pillowcase. It supports the neck curve nicely on the back, costs little, and travels easily. On the side it offers almost nothing, and if you turn in your sleep the roll ends up somewhere behind your head. Best as a back-sleeping aid or a physiotherapy-room tool, not as an all-night pillow.

Flat (low-loft) pillow

A thin rectangle, sometimes sold as a "slim orthopedic pillow". Useful for stomach sleepers, who need almost no height, and for small-framed back sleepers. For side sleepers with any shoulder width at all it is usually far too low and leaves the neck bending down towards the mattress.

Made-to-size pillow

A pillow whose shape and height follow your measurements. Neckfit's version has a thin neck-support section for back sleeping and a thicker head-support section for side sleeping, with both heights chosen from your neck length and shoulder broadness. Unlike the four shapes above, it does not require you to be average in any direction. If side sleeping and a wide shoulder are your main worry, our guide to the pillow for side sleepers approaches the shape question from that angle.

Which Pillow Material Suits Indian Homes?

Shape decides whether a pillow can hold your neck in the right place. Material decides whether you will still want to sleep on it in the second week of May, whether it smells, how you clean it, and how long it lasts. Indian conditions are unusually hard on pillows: long hot seasons, a humid monsoon, dust, ceiling fans rather than air conditioning in many bedrooms, and pillows that get shared or shuffled between rooms in a joint family.

Memory foam

Heat: sleeps warm; dense foam holds body heat. "Cooling gel" versions help for the first half-hour, then settle at room temperature. Smell: a chemical odour is common for one to three weeks. Washing: the foam must never be soaked; only the cover is washable. Durability: good foams keep their shape for two to four years; cheap ones develop a permanent head-shaped dent within a year and turn mushy in humid months.

Latex

Heat: better than memory foam because the structure is more open, but still warmer than fibre. Smell: natural latex can have a faint rubbery smell that fades. Washing: not washable; cover only. Durability: excellent, often five years or more, and it springs back rather than denting. Weight and price are the drawbacks, and a small number of people are sensitive to latex.

Ordinary polyester fibre

Heat: cool and airy on day one. Smell: none. Washing: usually machine-washable, which is why it is the default in most Indian homes. Durability: poor. Fibre clumps and flattens within six months to a year, faster in the monsoon when it absorbs moisture and mats together. The pillow that was the right height in January is a pancake by August.

High-resilience fibre

A different grade of fibre engineered to spring back rather than mat down. Heat: cool and breathable. Smell: none. Washing: depends on construction; Neckfit's high-resilience fibre pillow, for instance, is hand-washable: press the water out rather than wringing, then dry in the sun. Durability: much better than ordinary fibre; Neckfit quotes a typical life of around three years. It is the material Neckfit chose precisely because it stays soft yet firm without the heat and smell issues of foam.

Microfibre

Very fine polyester strands that feel closer to down. Heat: cool. Smell: none. Washing: machine-washable. Durability: better than coarse fibre, but it still softens and loses height over a year or two. It is a comfort material, not a support material.

Cotton

The traditional Indian filling, still common in older homes and in pillows made up by the local rajai-wala. Heat: cool and natural. Smell: none when fresh. Washing: difficult; cotton takes days to dry and can go musty in the monsoon. Durability: packs down hard within months and needs re-carding to recover, and neither the hard nor the lumpy state holds a neck curve.

Buckwheat hulls

Loose hulls that can be pushed around to build height where you want it. Heat: very cool; air moves freely. Smell: faintly grassy. Washing: hulls must be emptied out before the cover is washed and must never get wet. Durability: several years, though the hulls slowly crush to dust. The pillow is heavy, rustles when you move, and needs re-shaping by hand. Rare in India and mostly imported.

A pillow care calendar for Indian weather

Whatever you buy, a little seasonal routine keeps it honest. Before summer (March): wash covers, air foam pillows in shade for an afternoon, and check fibre pillows for flattening. Before the monsoon (June): give fibre and cotton pillows a full sun-dry, use a cotton cover rather than a synthetic one so sweat escapes, and keep foam pillows away from damp walls. After the monsoon (October): sun-dry everything again for two or three hours; any musty smell that survives means moisture got inside the filling. Winter: nothing special, but resist the temptation to add a second pillow "for warmth"; it changes your neck height overnight.

Orthopedic vs Cervical vs Memory Foam Pillow: 12-Point Comparison Table

Because the three labels overlap, the fairest way to compare is to line up the four things you can actually buy: a fixed-shape orthopedic pillow (firm, usually rectangular or lightly contoured), a fixed-shape cervical pillow (contour or butterfly), a plain memory foam pillow, and a made-to-size cervical pillow. Here are twelve points side by side.

Read down the "fit to your body" row and the pattern is obvious. Three of the four columns are built to an average and hope you are close to it. That is simply what mass production means, and it explains why the same contour pillow gets five-star and one-star reviews from people with the same complaint: the pillow was never the variable, the buyer's neck and shoulders were.

How Much Does a Good Pillow Cost in India?

Pillow prices in India run from the price of a movie ticket to the price of a small appliance. Here is what each band usually buys, so you know what you are paying for and what you are not.

Price bands in rupees

• Under ₹500: basic polyester fibre or cotton, standard rectangle, no support design. Fine for a guest bed. Expect to replace it within a year.
• ₹500 to ₹1,200: better fibre, microfibre, "hotel-style" pillows, and cheap fibre pillows relabelled as orthopedic. Softer and cooler than foam, still a fixed generic height, still flattens.
• ₹1,200 to ₹2,500: entry-level memory foam contour pillows and budget latex. This is where most "cervical pillows" on shopping apps sit. Support shape appears here for the first time, but the foam quality varies wildly and the smell complaints cluster in this band.
• ₹2,500 to ₹5,000: branded memory foam and latex with denser, more stable foam, and the made-to-size category. Neckfit's pillows sit in this band at ₹2,760 to ₹4,230 with all taxes included and free delivery across India, the price varying only with the size your measurements call for.
• Above ₹5,000: imported latex, adjustable-fill pillows, and premium foam with elaborate covers. Beyond this point you are mostly paying for the brand and the cover fabric rather than for better neck support.

For a closer look at what drives the price of shaped pillows specifically, and why "expensive" and "fits me" are different things, see our page on cervical pillow price in India.

Cost per night over three years

The sticker price is the wrong number to compare, because pillows do not last equally long. The number that matters is what each option costs you per night across a realistic period, say three years, or 1,095 nights. Here is the arithmetic, using mid-range prices and the typical lifespans from the material section above.

A few things jump out. The cheapest option is cheapest only on the first line; by the time you have bought a fourth fibre pillow you have spent more than a third of the price of a made-to-size one, and you have slept at the wrong height for most of those nights because fibre starts flattening within weeks. The memory foam contour pillow ends up costing more per night than the made-to-size pillow because it usually needs replacing once in three years.

Look at the last column too: cost per night is only worth paying if the pillow is doing its job on those nights. For context, the most expensive line in that table is roughly the price of a roadside cup of chai per night, and one physiotherapy session in a city clinic costs more than a month of nights on any pillow listed there.

Two small adjustments tilt the Neckfit line further: the first-order coupon FIRST10 takes 10 per cent off, bringing the range to roughly ₹2,484 to ₹3,807, or ₹2.27 to ₹3.48 per night, and referring a friend earns 10 per cent off your next order, which is handy when a parent or spouse wants one too.

Which Pillow Is Best for Neck Pain: For You?

There is no best pillow for neck pain in general, only a best pillow for a particular neck, a particular pair of shoulders, a particular sleeping position and a particular bedroom.

The back sleeper of average build with no pain

You are the person fixed-shape pillows were moulded for. A mid-range contour pillow in memory foam or latex, or a firm orthopedic fibre pillow, will probably serve you well. Choose latex or fibre if your room gets hot.

The side sleeper with broad shoulders

You are the person fixed-shape pillows fail most often. Most contour pillows top out at a height meant for narrower shoulders, and you end up with your head tilted down all night, waking with a one-sided ache. A shoulder broadness of 5.5 inches or more on Neckfit's scale calls for a head-support thickness of 4.5 to 5.5 inches, which almost nothing off a shelf provides. Made-to-size is the sensible route here; our article on how thick a pillow should be explains the numbers.

The combination sleeper who turns all night

You start on your back and wake on your side, or the reverse. A single-height pillow is wrong in one of those positions by definition. Butterfly shapes try to solve this with one fixed guess; a made-to-size pillow solves it with two heights chosen for you, thin under the neck for the back and thick under the head for the side.

The hot sleeper without air conditioning

Rule out memory foam unless your room is cool. Latex is tolerable; fibre and high-resilience fibre are cooler still. In a fan-cooled room in May, the material question matters as much as the shape question.

The student or IT worker with "phone neck"

Hours bent over a laptop and a phone stiffen the neck by evening, and a pillow at the wrong height finishes the job overnight. You need consistent neck support on the back and a proper side height too. Any well-fitted cervical pillow helps here; a made-to-size one removes the guesswork.

The person managing cervical spondylosis

Your doctor decides your treatment; a pillow is only a night-time support alongside it. Most doctors ask for a pillow that keeps the neck in its natural curve rather than pushed forward or dropped back, and that means a cervical shape at the correct height rather than a firm rectangle. Our page on cervical spondylosis and sleep covers what to discuss with your doctor.

What I'd tell my father

If my father, in his sixties, asked which pillow to buy, I would not start with the shop. I would ask him three things. Does he wake with a stiff neck more mornings than not? Does he sleep on his side, and if so, does his head sit level or drop towards the mattress? Has his pillow been in service longer than his phone? If the answers are yes, side, and yes, I would tell him to skip the firm rectangle the shop calls orthopedic, skip the memory foam that will bother him in April, and get a cervical pillow at a height chosen for his own neck and shoulders. I would measure him myself with a scale in ten minutes, order it, and tell him to give it a week before he judges it. And I would tell him that if the pain ever comes with numbness in the hands or does not settle, the pillow is not the answer and the doctor is.

Why a Pillow Made to Your Measurements Is a Category of Its Own

Everything above about orthopedic, cervical and memory foam pillows shares one hidden assumption: the pillow exists before you do. A mould is cut, a size is chosen, thousands of identical pillows are made, and then each buyer discovers whether their body happens to match. Made-to-size reverses the order. You are measured first, and the pillow is chosen to match the measurements.

That reversal is why it deserves its own category rather than a footnote under "cervical". Shape and material are still choices, but the height, the one number that decides whether your neck is straight or bent, stops being a guess.

The two measurements

Neckfit uses two numbers, both taken at home with a ruler or tape in a few minutes. Neck length (Neckfit calls it DICOP) is the distance from the bump at the back of your head down to the C7 bone, the knob you can feel at the base of your neck. It decides how much support goes under the neck when you lie on your back. Shoulder broadness (DEWA) is the distance from your ear to the wall when you stand with your shoulder against a wall. It decides how thick the head section must be when you lie on your side. The step-by-step is on our how to measure page.

The size ladder

Three neck bands and four thickness bands, across two product lines, give the 24 sizes. Look at the thickness column: a person needing a 5.5-inch head section and a person needing 2.5 inches are both told by the shelf that one contour pillow is "for neck pain". They need pillows more than twice as different from each other as the shelf allows. That is the whole argument for the category in one row.

Plus or Sorpresa

The two lines share the same sizing and differ only in how the back-sleeping position feels. Neckfit Plus puts thin support under the neck and nothing under the head when you lie on your back, then thick support under the head when you turn to your side. Neckfit Sorpresa does the same but adds slight cushioning under the head on your back, for people who feel uneasy with nothing there. Sorpresa is the gentler start if you have always slept with something under your head; Plus is the purer version. The most common size, for a neck length between 4.75 and 6.25 inches and a shoulder broadness of 4.5 to 5 inches, is the Neckfit Plus 14 x 27 x 3.5.

What Neckfit says about results

Neckfit reports relief of neck, back, shoulder and upper-arm pain in more than 90 per cent of its users, and says about 70 per cent feel a difference from the first night. It also says physiotherapists and orthopaedic doctors recommend the pillow, and it publishes their letters on its Testimonials page. Those are the brand's own figures from its users rather than independent trials, and your experience may differ.

Delivery is free across India and takes about five working days, or nine to ten for rare sizes, and you can pay online or by cash on delivery. If your measurements fall outside the 24 standard sizes, the customised pillow page explains how a fully custom size is handled.

Pillow Buying Checklist Before You Pay

Whether you buy in a shop or on your phone, a few minutes of checking saves months of the wrong pillow. Here are two checklists, one for the shop floor and one for the screen, followed by the household mistakes that undo even a good purchase.

The 60-second shop test

1. Squeeze and count. Press your fist into the centre and let go. Memory foam that takes more than five seconds to recover is slow and will sink deeply in heat; fibre that does not recover at all will flatten within weeks.
2. Edge press. Push down on the edge where your neck would rest. If it collapses as easily as the middle, there is no neck support built in, whatever the label says.
3. Smell it. Put your nose to the cover. A sharp chemical smell in the shop will be a sharp chemical smell in your bedroom for weeks.
4. Fist-to-shoulder check. Hold the pillow against your shoulder, from the point of the shoulder to your ear. If it is clearly shorter than that distance, it is too low for you on your side; if it overshoots by a lot, too high.
5. Read the packet for what it does not say. "Orthopedic" without a stated height or a stated foam density is a marketing word. Look for actual numbers.

The online checklist

• Is the pillow's height stated in inches or centimetres, not just "medium"?
• Is there any way to choose the height for your body, or is it one size?
• Is the filling named specifically (memory foam density, latex type, fibre grade), or just "premium"?
• What is the return or exchange policy if the size is wrong?
• Is the price inclusive of taxes and delivery, or will those appear at checkout?

Common Indian household mistakes

• Stacking two pillows. Two flat fibre pillows do not make one correct pillow; they make an unstable pile that is too high at the head and hollow at the neck.
• The family pillow. In many joint-family homes pillows move between beds and people. A pillow sized for a broad-shouldered son is wrong for his mother.
• Sleeping on foam with oiled hair. Hair oil soaks through the cover into memory foam, which cannot be washed. Use a washable cover and change it often, or choose a washable fibre pillow.
• Drying foam in direct sun. Sun is perfect for fibre and cotton but breaks down foam, which yellows and crumbles. Air foam in shade.
• Replacing only when torn. A pillow that has lost its height is finished even if the cover looks fine. Height, not appearance, is the retirement test.

One thing this checklist cannot do is diagnose. If your neck pain is persistent or severe, if it comes with numbness or weakness in the arms or hands, if you have a fever, or if the pain started after a fall, an accident or an injury, please see a doctor before you change your pillow. Everything in this article is general information, not medical advice, and no pillow replaces a proper examination.

When you are ready to compare the options side by side, the shop lists both lines and all sizes, and the size finder turns your two measurements into a size in under a minute. If you would like a broader tour of pillow types before you decide, our best pillow for neck pain buying guide is the natural next read.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is an orthopedic pillow the same as a cervical pillow?

Not quite. Orthopedic describes the purpose, keeping the spine aligned, while cervical names the part of the spine the pillow focuses on, the neck. Every cervical pillow is orthopedic in intent, but an orthopedic pillow could also be a knee pillow or a lumbar wedge. In shops the two words are often swapped, so judge the pillow by its shape and height rather than by the label.

Is memory foam or fibre better for neck pain in India?

Neither material fixes neck pain on its own; height and shape do that. Memory foam gives a cradling feel but sleeps warm, can smell when new and cannot be washed, which weighs against it in fan-cooled Indian bedrooms. High-resilience fibre stays cool, has no smell and can be washed, and holds its height for about three years. Many people in hot cities find fibre the more practical choice.

Can a memory foam pillow cause neck pain?

It can if its height is wrong for you. Memory foam holds whatever position it settles into, so if the contour is too tall or too low for your neck and shoulders, it keeps your neck bent in that position all night. In hot weather the foam also softens and sinks, so a pillow that felt right in winter may sit lower in summer. The material is not the problem; the fixed height is.

Which is better for neck pain, a contour pillow or a made-to-size pillow?

A contour pillow works well when its single moulded height happens to match your neck and shoulders, which is more likely if you are of average build and sleep on your back. A made-to-size pillow chooses the height from your own measurements, so it is the safer choice if you are a side sleeper, have broad or narrow shoulders, or turn between positions during the night.

How long does a cervical pillow last?

It depends on the filling. Fixed-shape memory foam and latex cervical pillows typically last two to four years before denting or softening, with latex at the longer end. Neckfit's high-resilience fibre pillow has a typical life of around three years. Any pillow is finished once it no longer holds its original height, whatever the cover looks like.

Can I wash an orthopedic pillow?

Only if it is fibre-filled. Foam and latex pillows must never be soaked; wash the cover and air the core in shade. A high-resilience fibre pillow such as Neckfit's can be hand-washed by pressing the water through it rather than wringing, then dried in the sun.