One of the types of injuries our Chiropractors in West Vancouver treat is Whiplash. Whiplash is one of the most common forms of neck injury caused by a forceful back-and-forth movement of the neck, often at high speed. It’s usually because of a car accident, although sports injuries or other impact trauma can also cause whiplash.
At Ambleside Chiropractors in West Vancouver, we’ve seen many different forms of Whiplash. Some Whiplash injuries will have symptoms that only last a few days or weeks. However, other, more severe cases will have longer recovery times and require further treatment and rehabilitation.
Main Symptoms of Whiplash
As Whiplash is usually caused by trauma to the neck, it should be clear when or when you’re not suffering from the effects of a Whiplash injury. The degree of neck pain, headaches, and stiffness you might feel in the coming days and weeks will depend on the severity of your injury.
After every car accident or injury involving the neck, you should always visit a doctor or West Vancouver Chiropractor if you’re in West Vancouver. The reason for the doctor’s visit is to double-check that there is no severe soft tissue damage or even fractured bones in the neck.
Most Common Symptoms of Whiplash, Usually Apparent Within 24 Hours
- Fatigue, Nausea and dizziness
- Headaches
- Tender pain around the neck area, including your shoulders and arms
- You find it difficult to move your neck without feeling pain
- General pain and stiffness in the front and back of the neck
Other symptoms might also include:
- Ringing in the ears, also known as tinnitus
- Depression – often associated with injuries in general
- Disturbances to your sleeping pattern due to your neck pain
- Blurred vision
- Vomiting
- Numbness, tingling, and pain down your arms/hands
Chiropractic Treatment for Whiplash
Your family doctor might either choose to send you home or send you for further treatment if he diagnoses you with Whiplash. Usually, if it’s a minor Whiplash injury, it’s expected your pain should recede over the coming days or weeks with home care. Your family doctor might also prescribe a limited run on painkillers and have you return for follow up visits. The other option might even include sending you for further treatment with a chiropractor.
Chiropractic treatment for Whiplash is to help those who continue to feel the adverse effects of the injury even after a visit to the family doctor. At our West Vancouver Chiropractors clinic, we treat a lot of patients with this type of chronic neck pain from a Whiplash injury. The symptoms of chronic pain from a Whiplash injury is highly likely if you are older. Chronic neck pain also occurs if you have suffered back pain or neck pain before, or you’ve had Whiplash more than once in your life. Some symptoms can be more severe than others. A disc bulge or disc herniation in your neck is a serious condition. You should be able to notice it right away if that pain becomes more severe. The symptoms can include severe headaches, tingling, numbness, and pain that travels down both arms to your hands.
Due to the complicated physical nature of your spine, it’s recommended you visit a West Vancouver Chiropractic doctor for an in-depth assessment and further treatment. Ambleside Chiropractic helps many people every year in West Vancouver deal with their chronic Whiplash pain and injury.
How A Chiropractor Can Help
Our West Vancouver Chiropractor will analyze the health of your entire spine, not just your neck. This exam is crucial as there may be areas of your back that are causing the pain that was initially created by the Whiplash injury.
Your Chiropractor will likely begin with a technique known as motion and static palpation. This exam technique is a simple method wherein they determine soreness, tenderness, pain, and movement of your neck by merely touching and moving your neck and head. They’re looking to identify areas of ligament injury, disc injury, or muscle spasms and trauma.
For particularly severe cases, our West Vancouver Chiropractor will recommend an X-ray for further analysis. If soft tissue injury to your neck and surrounding structures are suspected, your West Vancouver Chiropractor might also suggest getting a CT or MRI. All these additional imaging studies can help shed more light on hard to diagnose neck and spinal injuries.
The Treatment Itself
Once correctly diagnosed, our West Vancouver Chiropractor has a variety of different methods for treating the painful symptoms of Whiplash. While the injury is still acute – within a couple of days of the event – some methods can be used to reduce inflammation and pain. Different gentle muscle stretching therapies can speed up the healing process. Anti-inflammatory and pain medication can also help.
Alternatively, our Ambleside Chiropractor in West Vancouver will also use one of the multiple spinal manipulation modalities to alleviate pain at its core. Depending on the severity of your Whiplash injury, your Chiropractor can offer different ways to treat you. Common types of chiropractic treatment can include flexion-distraction, instrument-assisted manipulation, soft tissue therapy, and manual manipulation.
These methods are non-surgical. Spinal manipulation works wonders for pain that never seem to go away and can be carried out in a single afternoon, or after a string of follow-up sessions. It also works well with other types of gentle modalities like heat, stretches, and simple exercises that your Chiropractor will give you. Later on, gentle massages will also help. Do not be afraid to also continue with your pain medication or muscle relaxants to augment the reduction of your pain symptoms if necessary. However, the object here is to only depend on medication to help you through the acute stages. Later on, with daily stretches, heat, and exercises you will no longer need to keep taking medication.
Each treatment is unique. Your West Vancouver Chiropractor at Ambleside Chiropractic in West Vancouver will look at the entire spine and the person as the whole. This added procedure is done to help you achieve your optimum health after a car accident or a sports injury.
