Auto Accident Injuries & Whiplash
Treating Back & Neck Pain from Motor Vehicle Accidents (MVA)
Auto accident injuries and whiplash can be insidious, often taking weeks or months to fully manifest. You may experience back or neck pain that diminishes within a few days of your accident, or you may experience no neck pain at all, but the injury is very real, and is a time bomb waiting to explode. Unfortunately, by the time more serious complications develop, some of the damage from the injury may have become permanent. Years after whiplash victims settle their insurance claims, roughly half of them still suffer from their injuries.
How Can I Tell if I Have a Whiplash Injury?
Headache may be caused by injury to an upper cervical disc, facet joint or higher joints called the atlanto-occipital or atlanto-axial joints. Cervicogenic headache can also make migraines worse
Low back pain is common after whiplash and may be caused by injury to the discs, facet joints of the low back or sacroiliac (SI) joints. The resulting pain from these injuries can manifest in several ways.
Arm pain and heaviness may be caused by nerve compression from a herniated disc. Arm pain can also “referred” from other parts of the neck, meaning the pain is felt at a place away from the injured areas but not resulting from pressure on a nerve.
Other symptoms that indicate a spinal injury include difficulty concentrating, memory loss, depression, sleep disturbance, blurry vision, tingling sensations, or ringing in the ears.
How Long Will Auto Accident Injury Pain Last?
Mild whiplash injuries can start to see improvement quickly and often start to heal within six to nine months. However, more than 20% of those who suffer from whiplash injuries continue to suffer from pain, weakness or restricted movement two years after their accident. Unfortunately, the vast majority of these people will continue to suffer from some level of disability or pain for many years after that, if not for the rest of their lives.
Your treatment options for whiplash injuries depend largely on the type of injury and the extent of the damage, but SpineOne can help you create a long-term treatment and recovery plan that may include short-term pain relief as well as a roadmap to recovering normal joint movement and muscle repair.