How to Care For And Treat Whiplash Injury

Whiplash injury is the most common neck injury resulting from car accidents and affects approximately 1 million people a year. While being rear ended in a car accident is the leading cause of whiplash injury, the neck can also be injured in contact sports. Symptoms may take a day or two to develop, so being pain free at the time of an accident is no guarantee that the neck hasn’t been injured. Symptoms of a neck injury include, pain, stiffness, headache, and back pain.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Anti-inflammatory medication
• Prescription muscle relaxants
• Cold Pack
• Hot Pack
• Doctor
• Massage therapist
• Physical therapistM

1. Take an anti-inflammatory such as Advil or Tylenol as soon as possible, even if you are not yet in pain.

2. See a doctor to rule out more serious injury and to obtain prescriptions for anti-inflammatory pain medication as well as muscle relaxants.

3. Rest the neck in a neutral, supported position as much as possible—avoid looking up or down or from side to side. If you feel neck pain from the whiplash injury, move to find a position where the pain is relieved.

4. Use an ice pack on your neck for the first 24-48 hours. Ice helps limit the inflammation response and reduces neck pain

5. Use a hot pack on your neck after 48 hours. This is important because heat reduces muscle tension and facilitates nutrition to damaged tissue by increasing local circulation.

6. Get a massage (but only if your doctor has ruled out other injuries) for neck pain from a massage therapist with certification in neuromuscular therapy or a positional release modality. Don’t be surprised if you need two sessions a week for several weeks.

7. Continue to use heat on your neck along with anti-inflammatory medication. Expect to do this for several weeks.

8. Avoid straining your neck by forgoing exercises like sit-ups and by bringing books up to eye level (use pillows to prop up your arms so you don’t have to lean over). If you feel pain from activity, it means you are reinforcing the whiplash injury and inhibiting healing.

9. See a physical therapist who will show you neck exercises that will assist with healing from the whiplash injury.

Tips & Warnings

• Ease back into regular activities and stop immediately at the first twinge of pain. The nerves of the back are susceptible to re-injury, more so than other areas of the body.
• Do not try to power through a whiplash injury, this is not a simple muscle strain but a complex injury with trauma to an area full of nerves. Good self care and medical treatment will prevent or mitigate the development of chronic neck pain.
• If the neck injury turns out to be more severe than you thought, seek the advice of an attorney on how to proceed with the insurance company.
• Do not sign anything from the insurance company or make a final claim until you know for sure your neck injury has healed. Healing can take from six weeks to a year to never depending on the severity of the whiplash injury.

Resources

• Whiplash: Neck Trauma and Treatment
• Find A Massage Therapist