What to do for whiplash after a car accident

Have you recently been in a car accident? Have you been impacted by some kind of fast moving object? Have you fallen from high up? If any of this has happened to you and you have neck pain afterward, you may have whiplash.

Whiplash is a neck injury that occurs when your neck jolts forward and then back (like the crack of a whip) due to impact or collision. This is a common injury in car accidents since car accidents usually involve some form of impact or collision.

After you’ve been in a car accident, it’s always a good idea to visit a health care professional just to be sure you’re not injured in any way. If you do have whiplash, a physical therapist can help you recover.

Until you can get treatment, here are a few things you can do for whiplash after a car accident:

1. Check for symptoms

While a thorough diagnosis can only be performed by a professional, you can identify some symptoms of whiplash yourself. These symptoms include:

• Pain in the back and sides of the neck
• Stiffness in the neck
• Limited range of motion
• Muscle spasms
• Headaches and migraines
• Fatigue
• Anxiety
• Memory issues

2. Ice your neck

Applying ice to your neck can help reduce swelling and inflammation caused by whiplash. Wrap a cold pack or bag of ice in a towel and place it on your neck for 15 minutes. Do this two or three times a day for a couple of days.

After a few days of icing, you can switch to heating instead. Heating promotes blood flow to the neck, which delivers oxygen and nutrients to the tissues need to heal. Heating can also provide some pain relief. By this point though, you should have gotten professional health care assistance already.

3. Visit a health care professional

Health care professionals have different methods for treating whiplash. One of the most effective treatments is physical therapy.

Physical therapists primarily treat whiplash by reducing pain, restoring the range of motion in your neck and helping you live with neck pain while your whiplash recovers. Physical therapy treatments may include:

• Exercising and stretching
• Massage
• Manual therapy
• Electrical stimulation

Visit SSOR for whiplash treatment

Have you recently been involved in a car accident and have neck pain as a result? You may be suffering from whiplash. Visit SSOR to talk to one of our physical therapists about your neck pain and find out what we can do to treat it.

Contact us today to learn more about physical therapy for whiplash or to schedule an appointment.