Many believe whiplash is a minor injury that victims exaggerate, abuse, and over-dramatize. Unfortunately, whiplash injuries are devastating and can permanently impact one’s quality of life.
Some victims wonder if they can have whiplash if their neck does not hurt. You could have undiagnosed whiplash if you experience shoulder pain, headaches, or neck pain after a car crash, even if it is minor.
This article will explain five things you should know about whiplash.
Whiplash Can Affect Your Upper Back
Whiplash gets its appellation from the sudden back-and-forth motion an individual’s head makes during a car crash. The sudden force of the impact snaps the neck far above its normal range of motion.
This disruptive whipping action can brutally affect your neck’s bones, muscles, and ligaments. It may also affect the nerves around the upper back. Soft tissues could tear, and cervical bones may fracture during severe whiplash.
Numerous Symptoms Can Indicate Whiplash
Every whiplash case is dynamic and unique. However, some symptoms are more common than others. They include fatigue, shoulder or upper back pain, persistent headaches, lack of concentration, limited range of movement, irritability, depression, severe mood swings, numbness, neck pain and stiffness, and dizziness.
Whiplash symptoms usually take days or even a week to show. One of the reasons for this is that your body releases adrenaline in a car accident which serves as a natural painkiller. It helps to mask post-crash pain effectively.
Furthermore, it is common for accident-related injuries to take one or two days before making themselves evident.
Some Whiplash Injuries Require Surgery
Severe whiplash can destroy the vertebrae in the neck and spinal column. In cases like this, surgery is typically required to alleviate spinal nerve compression and its attendant pain. If only the surrounding soft tissues are damaged, it is not advisable to do an operation for mild or moderate whiplash.
Patients who undergo surgery need weeks to recover. Also, they battle with additional risks of infection and surgical complications.
A Neck Brace Is No Longer the Recommended Treatment Course
Your injuries’ severity will determine the treatment you will receive. Medical advancement has shown that immobilizing the victim’s neck is outdated among healthcare providers and that patients prefer routine physical therapy. They combine the therapy with massages and stretching exercises to make the patient comfortable and help them recover quickly.
Ensure you follow your physician’s directives on the course of treatment. Ask for a second opinion if you do not see any improvement.
Whiplash Can Take a Long Time to Heal
Whiplash lacks an immediate cure. Often, you will have to treat it the same way as you would any other sprain or strain. This approach gives the injured body part adequate time to heal.
Physicians usually advise patients to rest because the muscles cannot heal while in active use. As a result, patients are generally advised to resume work only after they have sufficiently recovered.
Additionally, your healthcare provider may focus on managing specific symptoms to improve your comfort. For example, they may prescribe medication to relieve pain and reduce inflammation. If you are experiencing irritability or depression, they might also recommend antidepressants or suggest speaking with a therapist for additional support.
Ensure you tell your healthcare provider about all your symptoms for comprehensive treatment. Even moderate or mild whiplash injuries are challenging to treat and can take months to fully recover from and severe whiplash injuries may lead to an extended leave of absence from work lasting a year or more.
Contact a Trustworthy Car Accident Attorney
“Contacting a reputable car accident lawyer is essential to know if your whiplash injury deserves some compensation,” says attorney AW Smith of A.W. Smith Law Firm. They will check the merits of your case to help you make an informed decision on how to best move forward.
