Whiplash: Causes And Treatment

Whiplash is a common neck injury and one that forces many people to seek out a Kingsland physio in Auckland for treatment. Alleviating the discomfort of whiplash is something we do as part of our pain relief treatments and while most of our clients will get better within a few weeks after following a treatment plan, there are some people who are not so lucky. For them, whiplash can lead to chronic neck pain and other long-lasting complications. A worse outcome can be expected when the risk factors include advanced age, existing pain in the neck or lower back, and having had whiplash before.

Whiplash is caused by the rapid back-and-forth movement of the neck, which can be likened to the cracking of a whip. As you’re probably well aware, whiplash is often caused by rear-end car accidents. However, it can also occur as a result of physical assault when someone has been punched, or in contact sports where the neck is snapped back in tackles and other collisions, and other types of trauma, such as a fall.

While whiplash is often tagged as a neck strain or sprain, it can present symptoms which extend well beyond the neck area. The most common symptoms include:

• neck pain and stiffness
• headache
• dizziness
• shoulder pain
• arm pain
• visual impairment
• ringing in the ears
• jaw and back pain.

That is a long and complex list of symptoms but it can also include depression, stress, and sleep disturbance. So even though whiplash is a familiar injury for us to deal with, it is one we want to manage as soon as we can because those symptoms are not something we want anyone to have to endure long term.

Our treatment options are numerous and include:

• gentle mobilisation
• postural exercises
• stretching
• massage
• dry needling

In the early stages of whiplash, some form of medication may also be required to provide pain relief. And in some cases, our treatment might need to be done in conjunction with other medical therapies. This all depends on the severity of the injury, of course, but as we said earlier, most people will be fine within a few weeks.

Whiplash is the common injury with a bewildering array of symptoms that are not obviously connected with the neck. For the best treatment options to relieve that discomfort, and to give you long-lasting relief, contact us in the first instance.  If other forms of treatment are required down the track, we’ll make sure to put you in touch with the right people.