Waking up with ear, jaw, and neck pain can be quite an unpleasant experience. Unfortunately, if you recently suffered from a whiplash injury, you will likely have these three symptoms for at least a few days. If you’re out of luck, you might also experience additional effects of a whiplash injury ranging from headaches to sleep disturbances. So, what can you do to cope and promote quick healing and recovery? Discover everything there is to know about whiplash injury care in our discussion below.
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Whiplash injury affects millions of Americans each year. It’s also among the leading causes of disabilities in the country because up to 300,000 patients develop crippling symptoms.
As the name suggests, whiplash injuries develop from incidents that cause your neck to move in a whip-like motion. These can include a rear-end car accident, head butts during a sporting competition, amusement park-related incidents, and even physical abuse.
Research explains that rapid neck movements during a whiplash-triggering event leave the cervical spine susceptible to bone shifting or vertebral subluxation. Consequently, this chain of events increases your risks for worse problems like lingering ear, jaw, and neck pain, neurovascular compression, and compromised spinal posture.
To help you understand how a whiplash injury can affect you, here’s a comprehensive list of the symptoms that patients complain about:
Generally, the symptoms of a whiplash injury manifest right after the triggering event. But, there have been several instances when the symptoms like ear, jaw, and neck pain appear several days after.
So, it’s a good idea to schedule your visit with a clinician. This will allow you to get a comprehensive diagnosis, especially on the extent of the damage and your expectations for healing and recovery.
Here are two routinary procedures used to diagnose a whiplash injury:
A whiplash injury can cause several physical symptoms. That’s why doctors, therapists, and upper cervical doctors combine various techniques to assess a patient’s condition. Most physical examination procedures include standard things such as checking the range and degree of motion that your neck can do and testing the reflexes.
Besides checking apparent signs of neck trauma, it’s equally crucial to run in-depth diagnostic tests like MRI and X-ray scans. These provide clinicians with a better overview of your anatomy and how they have changed because of the injury.
Once you confirm the presence of a whiplash injury, we suggest tapping into the best and most effective remedies that patients use. This will help you minimize the pressure on your nervous system and fix postural imbalance before it leads to worse problems. If you’re not sure which remedy or procedure to use, feel free to scan through our list of secret tips and tricks for whiplash recovery:
Regardless of what caused your whiplash injury, we strongly recommend taking a break from doing rigorous activities. This will help your body heal faster and avoid straining your neck.
Some doctors prescribe muscle relaxing medications to their patients to help them cope better with the aftermath of a car collision or a sporting injury.
Cold or ice therapy is one of the oldest and most popular tricks to alleviate pain and inflammation. So, it won’t be a bad idea to use this technique when you suffer from a whiplash injury.
TENS or Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation has gained a lot of attention from people keen on using natural methods to cope with whiplash pain. It uses a device that produces electrical pulses that travel to the affected body parts, such as your neck joints and muscles.
Whiplash injuries can worsen if it’s underlying cause involves misaligned neckbones and overstretched muscles. Thankfully, you can potentially address both with the help of physical therapy sessions.
Swift and well-calculated neck bone adjustments provided by an upper cervical doctor can unlock a different level of healing for whiplash injuries. This technique aims to restore balance and jumpstart the body’s natural self-healing abilities.
No one wants to experience ear, jaw, and neck pain and other whiplash symptoms. However, sometimes they are pretty inevitable if you hurt your neck while playing your favorite sport or driving your vehicle. Hopefully, our list of tips and insights above will help you experience improved healing. We hope you apply them and see how they can help manage situations that stem from a whiplash injury.
Additionally, we encourage you to try upper cervical chiropractic. After all, many patients attest to the effectiveness of receiving chiropractic adjustments on the C1 and C2 bones. It’s a scientifically-proven technique that focuses on realigning the neck bones and head to the rest of your body.
If you haven’t tried upper cervical care, we strongly recommend locating a local practice and scheduling your first-ever appointment with a chiropractic doctor. By doing so, you can further understand the benefits of maintaining an ideal body posture and addressing spinal abnormalities caused by neck trauma or whiplash injuries.
Get rid of your whiplash injuries with the help of a friendly neck chiropractor near you.
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TV show host Montel Williams describes how specific chiropractic care has helped his body.
The content and materials provided in this web site are for informational and educational purposes only and are not intended to supplement or comprise a medical diagnosis or other professional opinion, or to be used in lieu of a consultation with a physician or competent health care professional for medical diagnosis and/or treatment. All content and materials including research papers, case studies and testimonials summarizing patients' responses to care are intended for educational purposes only and do not imply a guarantee of benefit. Individual results may vary, depending upon several factors including age of the patient, severity of the condition, severity of the spinal injury, and duration of time the condition has been present.
