Hey everybody, this is Dr. Pat from the Springfield Wellness Center. And today I wanted to talk to you about whiplash. A few things I want to discuss are what causes whiplash, what to do about whiplash and the mechanisms and movements behind what makes whiplash, Whiplash.
Whiplash is a very common phrase, a lot of people hear it, especially in relation to things like car accidents. And yes, this is a very common injury to stem from some type of car or auto accident. But whiplash can happen as a result of any quick head movements, you know, such as a fall or slip or anything like that as well. So we want to make sure to understand it’s not just from auto accidents, it can be from other things that happen in life, as well. So when we talk about whiplash, it really refers to the rapid head movement that occurs as a result of a trauma.
Whiplash Caused By Auto Accidents
For this example, we will talk about a car accident, especially a rear end accident, because this is a very common auto accident that does cause whiplash, especially for the person who’s being struck, because a lot of times, they don’t see it coming or they don’t expect it. So whenever we have a rear end accident, the force is coming from behind. So just kind of demonstrate that here with Dana, what happens is the force is coming from behind here, the first thing that happens with her head is it’ll move backwards. And when that happens, there are muscles in the front of her neck, that when they get stretched to such an extreme, they will reflexively pull downwards. And what that means is that there will be a rebound effect, that will bring her head very, very harshly forward. And then what happens after that is when this gets stretched in the back, the same thing will happen, those muscles will pull, and it’ll pull the head back. So we kind of have this cycle back and forth motion, as taking the head through a lot of that violent motion. That is what ultimately causes the damage to the tissues, things like muscles, ligaments, joints, tendons, everything involved here, with whiplash type injuries. And so just to get an idea of what that looks like, that’s the best representation of what we see, you know, from this type of incident.
Side To Side Trauma Can Also Cause Whiplash
Whiplash can also occur from any movement from side to side as well. It’s not always just front to back. It’s any of those rapid head movements that cause tissue damage that then gets classified as whiplash. Now, what do you do about whiplash? If you experience it? Well, chiropractors are one of the best places you can go to receive care for whiplash because they have the tools and the training necessary to help approach it from multiple different angles. You obviously want to make sure that the joints are going to be well intact, and in good alignment. Because a lot of times whiplash can cause subluxation or misalignment to occur, you also want to be mindful of the soft tissues. Soft tissues very well may have been very much compromised from this type of incident. And that means that we need to be treating you very carefully. So using gentle soft tissue techniques and using deep tissue laser therapy. All these different things can help these tissues heal, and also heal in the right way so that you can get back to full function over the course of your recovery. I wanted to make this video just to give you a kind of a visual representation of what’s occurring in a particular type of whiplash incident.
I hope you found this information useful. If you or someone you know, has experienced whiplash or symptoms from whiplash and want to know what to do about whiplash please send them our way because we see this stuff all the time and I know we can help them out. So if you liked this video, please share it with your friends and family. And I will see you on the next one.