Chiropractic Treatment for Whiplash
Many people who are in car accidents won’t go to the doctor right after a crash unless they are feeling poorly. However, whiplash symptoms don’t always show up right away. This wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for the fact that the sooner that whiplash is treated, the better that people’s outcomes generally are.
What Is Whiplash
Whiplash occurs when someone experiences an abrupt forward and back movement of their neck. Unsurprisingly, most people who experience whiplash do so in a car accident. However, it is also a somewhat common sports injury. It can do a lot of damage to a variety of parts of the neck and back, including nerves, tendons, muscles, and ligaments in the neck as well as intervertebral joints, which are joints between each of the vertebrae in your spine.
Symptoms of Whiplash
The severity and type of symptoms that someone will suffer from whiplash vary based on what part of their neck was injured and how severe the injury was. People will normally experience a combination of the following symptoms: headaches, neck pain, stiffness, a limited range of motion, and dizziness. In severe cases, problems concentrating, fatigue, and numbness in hands and fingers may also occur.
Treatment for Whiplash
As whiplash symptoms vary, so do the appropriate treatments for it. However, in general, treatments include pain medication if appropriate, anti-inflammatory medication, trying to rest neck muscles, and using ice packs to reduce swelling.
When you visit a car accident chiropractor, they will also normally verify that the alignment in your back and neck has not been affected by the car accident. Alignment issues can keep your neck from healing properly, and alignment issues will often get worse over time.
As a result, if you do not visit a chiropractor who can restore proper alignment to your neck, you could end up experiencing worse symptoms from your accident instead of having them reduced as you heal.