Whiplash Injuries
Your pain and misery as a result of a whiplash injury might not feel any better if you were told that there is no evidence of injury on your X-rays. However this is often the case, because initially nothing may show up on an X-ray unless the accident was very severe. Symptoms can take months or even longer to appear. The problem may be in the muscles and ligaments, which do not appear on an X-ray.
Changes to normal neck movement
Rather than just a simple sprain to the muscle and ligaments of the neck, research shows that during a road traffic accident involving a rear-end shunt, the neck curves in an abnormal S-shape which grossly alters normal neck
movement.
Normally, the joints at the back of your neck glide over each other and are self-lubricated, but a whiplash injury forces them together, damaging the surrounding area, which includes nerves, muscles, ligaments and discs.
There are receptors in the muscles around the neck called muscle spindles. These relay information to your brain about the position of your head and neck. If these muscles have been damaged due to whiplash, you may experience:
Neck pain
Headaches
Arm pain or tingling
Dizziness, vertigo or light headedness
Fatigue
Poor concentration
Eye strain
Getting all the joints and muscles working together
After taking a medical history, we will examine you carefully to assess whether your neck is moving properly. This involves examining the muscles, nerves, joints, ligaments and tendons. We also have the equipment to test for subtle problems with your balance and eye muscles.
Then your treatment will begin with often gentle, specific adjustments to your neck. This will decrease pain and restore normal movement to the area, aiming to ensure that each joint is working at its best.
As well as manipulative treatment, we use rehabilitation techniques including eye - head - posture co-ordination exercises to retrain those receptors if they have been damaged through a whiplash injury, as well as prescribing supervised neck strengthening and swiss ball exercises when necessary. This sophisticated rehabilitation is explained more on our functional neurology page.
Not just car accidents
Whiplash injuries are also known as acceleration/ deceleration injuries and need not be the result of car accidents. A slip or fall can give you a whiplash-type injury. In fact you do not have to hit your head or neck - a sudden movement, especially if it is repetitive, may cause injury. Welders, for example, may suffer whiplash-type symptoms as a result of ‘nodding down’ their masks more than 50 times in a day.
There was no pain straight after the accident - why has it started hurting now?
The pain from a whiplash doesn’t have to happen immediately after a trauma; often your body can compensate in the short-term for injuries and it is not until weeks or even months later that the pain develops.
Rest doesn't seem to have made it any better. Why not?
It is important to reduce any inflammation as soon as possible. It is equally important that you move your neck, to keep the muscle spindles working and ensure that, if scar tissue develops, it remains flexible. Chiropractic treatment helps restore appropriate movement in your neck as quickly as possible.
Adapted with permission from the British Chiropractic Association whiplash information leaflet.
