You’re in a car accident, you brush it off as nothing, and then the aches and pains start. Most people don’t realize that even if your car accident was minor, you could still find yourself in pain days, or even weeks later. Whiplash is a common injury associated with car accidents, and especially rear-end collisions. If you’re experiencing symptoms of whiplash after a car accident, here’s what you can expect:
Whiplash is a soft tissue injury caused by a sudden back and forth movement of the head (similar to the motion of a whip). This rapid motion causes your neck muscles to stretch beyond their normal range of motion, straining the ligaments, tendons, muscles, nerves and alignment of the bones in your neck and back. Along with car accidents, it can also be caused by bungee jumping, contact sports, physical altercations, and more.
Symptoms of whiplash:
Usually, whiplash often feels like tension, stiffness or pain in the back of the neck and shoulders, often accompanied with a headache and back pain. But there are other symptoms as well, which include dizziness, abnormal sensations such as burning or prickling, fatigue, memory loss, concentration impairment, depression and more.
Recovering from whiplash:
Even though the injury can take about 3 months to heal, symptoms of whiplash usually subside after a few days, or even a few weeks. However, sometimes people can suffer from prolonged whiplash symptoms–even up to years later. If your whiplash has persisted more than a few days, it’s time to schedule a consultation with a chiropractor.
When ongoing pain is involved, it means there could be more to your injury than just sprained tissue. For example, if your spinal curves or individual spinal bones are out of place, it may be deterring your whiplash from healing as quickly as it should.
Correcting these issues, often called subluxations, with gentle chiropractic adjustments will promote proper healing of these fragile tissues.
Your next steps:
If you’ve recently sustained whiplash, apply an icepack to the back of your neck for 20 minutes. This will cut down on the inflammation in the area of the injury that causes pain. And be sure to see a chiropractor.
Even if you sustain this injury, you may not notice pain or symptoms right away; but you could start to feel the effects of whiplash several days later. Because of this, it’s important to see a chiropractor / chiropractic doctor soon after your car accident–especially if your state’s personal injury laws have time restrictions on how long after an accident you have to document your injuries.
Some states, like Florida, will require that you seek medical care to document your injuries within 2 weeks from the time of your accident. If you don’t, you’ll have to pay for treatment out-of-pocket.
When you’ve been diagnosed with whiplash, a medical doctor may prescribe pain killers, over-the-counter medicine, or anti-inflammatories to reduce your pain and tension. But these treatments aren’t a cure for the injury–the damaged tissue needs time to heal, and that process can be enhanced and sped up with proper chiropractic care.
If you have yet to see relief from your accident related whiplash symptoms, contact Parkside Health and Wellness Center for an assessment. The sooner you get into the office to determine the underlying causes of your prolonged whiplash symptoms, the sooner you’ll be on the path to recovery and relief.