Whiplash injury occurs when the body reacts to a sudden deceleration or acceleration force by hyperflexion or hyperextension of the neck. Lyn Lake Chiropractic specializes in treating whiplash injuries, auto accident injuries, and bicycle accident injuries. Whiplash is very common in car accidents, occurring in part because the neck muscles don’t have enough time to brace themselves against the sudden force.
If you’ve been in a car accident, whiplash injuries need to be taken seriously. Symptoms can take weeks to manifest, which makes it easy to assume you’re not as injured as you really are. Symptoms can include radiating pain into the shoulder, elbow, wrist, or hand, lower back pain, headaches, jaw pain, and more.
How Whiplash Trauma Shows Up
Whiplash injuries can manifest in a wide variety of ways, including neck pain, headaches, fatigue, upper back and shoulder pain, and low back pain. Because so many factors play into the overall trauma — direction of impact, speed of the vehicles involved, and the patient’s age, sex, and physical condition — whiplash symptoms commonly have a delayed onset, often taking weeks to become evident.
Neck Pain
Neck pain is the single most common complaint we hear from patients who’ve experienced whiplash trauma. Often the pain radiates across the shoulders, up into the head, and down between the shoulder blades. Whiplash tends to affect every tissue in the neck — facet joints, discs, muscles, ligaments, and nerves. Disc injury is also a common cause of chronic neck pain; the outer wall of the disc can tear during a whiplash trauma.
Headaches
After neck pain, headaches are the second most common complaint from whiplash patients. While some headaches result from direct brain injury, most are related to injury of the muscles, ligaments, and facet joints of the cervical spine, which refer pain to the head.
TMJ Pain
A less common but very debilitating result of whiplash is temporomandibular joint dysfunction (TMJ). It usually begins as pain along with clicking and popping in the jaw during movement. Our Minneapolis chiropractors are specially trained to treat TMJ problems, and we’ll refer you to a TMJ specialist if additional care is needed.
Lower Back Pain
Most people think of whiplash as strictly a neck injury, but the lower back is commonly injured too. Low back pain shows up in more than half of rear-impact collisions with reported injury, and in almost three-quarters of side-impact crashes — largely due to the tremendous compression the low back experiences.
Healing from Whiplash Injury
Whiplash requires a skilled health professional specially trained to work with these types of injuries. Chiropractic care utilizes manual manipulation of the spine to restore normal movement and position of the spinal vertebrae, and it’s by far the single most effective treatment for minimizing the long-term impact of whiplash — especially when combined with massage therapy, trigger point therapy, exercise rehabilitation, and other soft tissue rehab modalities.
Three Lyn Lake Locations to Serve You
Did you know we now have three Lyn Lake Chiropractic locations? Alongside our original Uptown/South Minneapolis clinic, we now see patients in Golden Valley and St. Paul.
Frequently Asked Questions
How soon after a car accident should I see a chiropractor for whiplash?
As soon as possible. Whiplash symptoms often take weeks to fully appear, so getting checked right after an accident — even if you feel only mildly sore — helps catch injuries before they progress.
What are the most common symptoms of whiplash?
Neck pain, headaches, upper back and shoulder pain, low back pain, and in some cases TMJ (jaw) pain. Symptoms can radiate into the shoulders, arms, and hands.
Why do whiplash symptoms take so long to appear?
Delayed onset depends on factors like the direction and speed of impact and the patient’s age and physical condition. Soft tissue injuries in particular often don’t produce noticeable pain until inflammation builds over days or weeks.
What’s the most effective treatment for whiplash?
Chiropractic manual manipulation of the spine, especially when combined with massage therapy, trigger point therapy, and exercise rehabilitation, is the most effective approach for minimizing long-term whiplash impact.
Can whiplash cause lower back pain, not just neck pain?
Yes. Low back pain appears in more than half of rear-impact collisions and nearly three-quarters of side-impact crashes with reported injury, due to compression forces on the lower spine.