To first decide whether or not you have suffered from either a recent or long standing Whiplash injury, you must first understand the mechanism (ACTION) that causes whiplash. Whiplash happens when your neck flexes forward and then backwards in a quick action. This action is often associated with car accidents, sledding accidents, quick stops or even falling asleep in a chair. These motions where your neck goes forward and the backwards are often referred to as Cervical Acceleration/Deceleration (CAD) injuries. Unfortnately many of these types of injuries go un-diagnosed and are simply told that "time" will heal it. Nothing furthre can be from the truth. These types of injuries can leave lingering effects that last for years and lead to permament injury, pain, disability and degnerative disc disease.
The most common cause of Whiplash injuries is a motor vehicle accidents. Studies how that an in impact of just 2.5 mph can cause injury to the cervical (neck) spine. Untreated, these undetected and un-treated injuries can lead to a lifetime of pain and suffering years later. NOTE: This means that even though your car may not have much damage, your body can absorb the forces of the impact creating damage. The forces of striking or being struck by another vehicle can damage joints, ligaments and tendons.That is why after a motor vehicle accident it is very important that you get a thorough chiropractic injury examination. This examination will detect if you have suffered any type of whiplash injury. And if you have, we can help you fix the underlying structural or ligamentous problems so that you do not have permanent damage later on. Without correction, you will suffer permanent pain and suffering.
CONFUSION? After and accident, many patients notice that after an accident muscles begin to tighten up, they begin to feel an stiff neck. Spasms, neck stiffness/tightness, and decreases range of motion (can not turn your head very well) may all be indicators that you’ve suffered damage. Unfortunately, many of these patient's "think" that "Maybe it will go away" on it's own. Like magic. If structural damage "did" occur during an accident, "time" will ceratianly not correct the misalignment, nor will medication and simple stretches. Even though your body is trying to protect itself, this can lead to scar tissue which can lead to chronic pain, degeneration, and limit motion within your spine. So it’s VERY IMPORTANT to not wait to seek care, but rather the earlier the better. In fact, if tissues are not restored to proper function within the first few weeks, scar tissue and inflammation can cause permanent damage to the joints of the spine, including the discs.
Since whiplash injuries often involve injury to the ligaments, joints, nerves, muscles, and other soft-tissue structures, there are a combination of treatments that will help you. approach is best used to manage the injury. A comprehensive injury [Chiropractic] examination is recommended to evaluate the extent of the condition and further treatment may be deemed necessary to prevent advanced destruction from scar tissue.
At home patient's prior to getting an Injury Examination will have tried ice, over-the-counter painkillers (Advil, Tylenol, Ibuprofen, etc.), and muscle relaxers which may offer temporary give relief and cover up your pain. However, they do not address or fix the source of the problem. In fact, these approaches can make the problem/injury worse because they "COVER UP" or “mask the pain”. If you cover up the pain, you "BELIEVE" that your problem is getting better and you may do things that are hurting you, but you are "NUMBED UP" so you don't know that you are aggravating the problem. That is.... until your drugs wear off.
What can we do differently? Taking into consideration the severity of your pain abd injuries, Specific, GENTLE Chiropractic adjustments are performed to restore proper range of motion with the joints of the cervical spine. We use 3 different types of adjustments depending on the severity of your pain. We can use the Activator which is a very soft, gentle adjusting instrument. This tool corrects the problem without any cracking noises. We also can use the Arthrostim. This is an adjusting tool that many patient's say feels like a massage. They LOVE IT! And the other way to correct your problem is through manual adjusting which is when we use our hands. We will choose which way is best for your condition so you are 100 comfortable with whatever method we use. Other treatments include muscle stimulation, ultrasound, and other therapeutic modalities. We KNOW that you are in PAIN so we will do whatever it takes to ease your pain as soon as possible! Our doctors are use to treating injury victims so we have over 33 years of experience in treating these types of injuries. Let experience be on youor side.