Each year in the United States, the number of car accidents on the nation’s nearly 4 million miles of roadways totals from 5 million to more than 6 million.
While there are any number of ways that people can injure themselves in an automobile accident, neck injuries in the form of whiplash are among the most common — about 3 million cases of whiplash are reported each year, with most occurring on the heels of a rear-end collision.
Whiplash can be a challenging condition to deal with; early identification and intervention are key. With that in mind, the team here at World Medical Group dba Neuropathy & Pain Centers of Texas wants to outline a few important pieces of information about neck pain after an automobile accident and why you should never ignore the issue.
We want to start by describing what occurs in your spine when you have whiplash so that you can better appreciate the potential seriousness of this common injury.
While the name whiplash provides us with some clue, it doesn’t paint the entire picture. Let’s take the aforementioned read-end collision. When a vehicle hits you from behind, it can cause your head to whip forward and back, which can damage the connective tissues in your neck, shoulders, and back.
This alone is problematic, but whiplash also often leads to compression along your spine — the force of the jolt is absorbed by your spine, and this can damage vertebrae.
Furthermore, the whipping action can cause your brain to slam into the walls of your head and lead to a concussion.
In the immediate aftermath of a car accident, it’s not unusual for pain to be suppressed, thanks to the burst of adrenaline and cortisone the stress of the accident releases in your body. Once these chemicals wear off, however, injuries can reveal themselves.
This explains why symptoms of whiplash can develop immediately after the accident, but also hours, if not days, later. So, even if you’re not feeling any pain after your car accident, it doesn't necessarily mean that you’re in the clear.
Bearing that in mind, we want you to watch for any of these symptoms in the hours and days following your accident:
Some of these symptoms, such as a sore neck, aren’t necessarily cause for concern, especially if the soreness loosens its grip over the next few days and you feel better.
If the soreness stays the same (or gets worse) and you’ve developed other symptoms, this can very much point to whiplash, and we want to see you sooner rather than later.
One of the reasons it’s so important to identify whether you have whiplash is because the areas of your body it affects become weaker and more vulnerable, making protecting them important.
As well, during your evaluation, we can perform a physical exam and use advanced imaging to check the extent of any damage you’ve incurred, which will guide us in your whiplash treatment. This treatment might include any of the following:
The bottom line is that you should always err on the side of caution when it comes to your neck and spine. So, if you’ve been in a car accident and you suspect whiplash, don’t delay in seeing us.
To get started, please call or message one of our offices in Arlington or Fort Worth, Texas, today to schedule an evaluation.
