It’s a normal day. You’re driving along, minding your own business and obeying the rules of the road. Maybe you’re singing along to the music on the radio. The sun is shining. The birds are singing.
Then, BAM!
Seemingly out of nowhere, your car is hit by another vehicle. It sounds like an explosion. The shock of impact takes your breath away.
At first, you feel nothing. But when you wake up the next day, your neck hurts so badly you can’t turn your head.
You may have whiplash.
An exponential ton
Most cars out there weight about a ton. Depending on how fast the car hitting you is going, the force of impact is disproportionate to the weight. Even mitigated by crumple zones built into cars to reduce crash impact, the force you experience is enormous.
That’s what your neck is telling you. You’ve sustained a traumatic injury. And after a crash, your body will be tense due to the shocking nature of what you’ve experienced. Your brain may not immediately send pain signals to tell you something’s wrong.
Kinetic force is the culprit, with impact causing your head to suddenly be propelled by force. Whether that’s forward and back, or to the side, your head is a heavy object, unaccustomed to getting the football treatment it gets when another vehicle hits you.
Don’t wait to get help
3 of 5 bodily injury insurance claims resulting from car wrecks are due to whiplash. But many people don’t take the pain as seriously as they should. Whiplash can lead to chronic problems if not managed by a medical professional.
Whiplash can be accompanied by other symptoms. Some of the more distinctive ones are blurred vision, problems swallowing or chewing, nausea, dizziness and ringing in the ears. If you have neck pain accompanied by any or all these symptoms, you may have sustained a whiplash injury.
Even if you’re icing your neck and taking over the counter drugs to deal with the pain, you need to ensure that you haven’t done permanent damage, or damage that may return later to become an ongoing pain challenge.
You need to see a medical professional.
Whiplash can be serious
Like most types of trauma, whiplash varies in intensity from mild to acute. Even a moderately intense whiplash injury can take weeks or months to heal.
Muscle spasms and any indication of nerve compression need to be attended to, to improve your prognosis for full recovery.
Back & Body Medical
Back & Body’s award-winning pain relief model has now been established here in New Jersey. We take whiplash seriously, providing our patients with multi-disciplinarian care that relieves their pain and works with them to ensure they’re fully recovered.
My chiropractic services are supported by acupuncture, sports medicine and physical therapy to create a well-rounded pain relief resource which allows us to tailor care to individual patients.
Our approach works and our outcomes bear that claim out. If you have neck pain following a car wreck, contact us.
