Whiplash can occur when a person’s head is suddenly moved back and forth at a rapid speed and with great force. Whiplashes can occur to anyone of any age and is primarily seen in car accidents, on roller coasters and in sports.

When a whiplash occurs, it typically results with your soft tissues in your neck being extended beyond its normal range of motion causing them to become strained and in some incidents, can cause a skeletal imbalance in your neck. Sometimes the symptoms of the whiplash are not automatically felt and can be felt either a few hours or days later. But it is highly important to be conscious if you suspect that have sustain one because if you ignore it, it can result into further damage and pain.

How do you know if you sustained a Whiplash?
Like most injuries there are symptoms associated with it such as neck pain and stiffness, headaches, limited range of motion and pain with certain movements of your neck. If you have gotten into an accident or have been playing sports and got hit or fell awkwardly, then be aware of the symptoms because you may have possibly sustained a whiplash or something more severe.

When should you see a Doctor?
If you suspect that you have sustained a possible whiplash and the pain is so severe that it is affecting your daily living, then seeing a physician that specializes in pain management of the musckuloskeletal system will be highly beneficial to evaluating and treating your pain. During the evaluation, they can do special tests to determine if you did in fact sustain a whiplash and if there are any other underlying issues or other possible injuries. They will test your range of motion, the severity of your pain, the location of the pain and what causes the pain. They will possibly order imaging tests to see if there is more damage to the soft tissue or any misalignments within your skeletal structure.

Treatments

Once the specialized physician evaluates you and after reviewing any possible imaging tests, they can proceed to providing you specific plan of care catered for you and your needs. A part of those treatments that can help with Whiplash pain other than rest and over the counter medications are Trigger point injections, Osteopathic Manual Therapy and in some cases, Prolotherapy.

• Trigger Point Injections: Trigger point injections is the process where a local anesthetic is injected into painful muscle areas to not only help decrease the pain but to also relax the muscle and increase blood flood in those painful stiff muscular areas.
• Osteopathic Manual Therapy: Osteopathic manual therapy is a special technique that utilizes application of pressure and manipulation with the hands to stiff and sore area to loosen up the muscle more and to reach the deeper muscle that need attention as well.
• Prolotherapy: Prolotherapy is a regenerative therapy that utilizes Dextrose and a local anesthetic to help promote growth of new collagen and strengthen the existing ligaments. Prolotherapy is effective If the imaging tests show that there has been some tearing of the ligaments in the neck and need to be strengthened and repaired.