Chiropractic Care of Whiplash and Neck Injuries

Of the millions of people who visit doctors of chiropractic each year, a large number have had whiplash injuries. Whiplash injuries occur when a person’s spine, usually the neck, was hurt by being unexpectedly or suddenly thrown very quickly in one direction and then in the opposite direction. You might say the head is "whipped" around the neck.

Whiplash is one of the most common consequences of auto accidents; it is estimated that 15-30% of car occupants will suffer neck pain.

In almost all whiplash-type injuries the spine is thrown first in one direction and then is pulled in the opposite direction because the muscles react to the initial injury by pulling or rebounding in the opposite direction. The rebound can and often does cause injury to your soft tissues-muscles, ligaments, tendons, and other soft tissues. Occasionally a whiplash injury can result from side to side motion of the neck, also called left and right lateral hyperflexion.

There is more to whiplash than being thrown forward and backward. Usually the head is turned to the right or left a little when an accident occurs and this can complicate the effects of the injury.

Whiplash Damage

Whiplash can be mild to severe and can range from rapid healing to slow healing to long term chronic pain and impairment. It can cause serious problems because it can cause long-term damage. Studies show that a large percentage of whiplash sufferers, from 50 to as much as 88% may continue to suffer pain and some amount of disability for years after the accident.

Spinal Cord Damage

Depending on the severity of the accident, whiplash damage can range from barely noticeable stiffness to death. A worst case scenario occurs in a small minority of cases where there is actual bone fracture and spinal cord damage causing paralysis of death.

Medical Care

An individual who has been in an accident should first make sure that there are no life-threatening emergency – broken bones, bleeding or hemorrhage, internal organ damage, serious contusions or abrasions, shock and other damage. This is the specialty of emergency medicine, which does its best work when dealing with trauma or accidental injury. After the patient is out of immediate danger, and when it is safe to do so, their spine desperately needs to be checked by a doctor of chiropractic for life-threatening spinal damage, called the vertebral subluxation complex.

That is essential because many whiplash sufferers live in pain for years after the injury, forced to survive on painkillers, muscle relaxants and various therapies including surgery because the spinal damage a doctor of chiropractic can correct has not been eliminated. In many cases, a visit to the chiropractor may give great relief safely, quickly and without surgery or drugs.

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