Learn What To Do If You Think You May Have Whiplash After A Car Accident

Being involved in a car accident can sometimes lead to whiplash. Whiplash occurs when the sudden force from the crash causes ligaments, tendons, and muscles in your neck to become strained and pulled. It is important to get proper treatment for whiplash to ensure that your neck heals properly. The guide below walks you through the steps to take if you think that you may have gotten whiplash from a vehicle accident.

Get Evaluated Right Away

The first thing you need to do is to get evaluated right away. The doctor needs to check to see if there are indeed injuries to your neck. X-rays will more than likely be taken to ensure that the damage only involves your muscles and tendons and is not affecting the bones in your neck. The doctor should be able to let you know if you have whiplash within a matter of a few minutes.

Immediate Treatment for Whiplash

If the doctor determines that you do in fact have whiplash, he or she will give you a neck brace to wear. The brace keeps you from being able to move your neck around so that you do not cause further injury to it. There are some cases of whiplash that are so severe that the brace must be worn at all times, even when the patient sleeps. Your doctor will let you know how and when to wear the brace.

Follow-Up Evaluation

The doctor will have you come back for a follow-up appointment a few weeks after the accident to see how your neck is healing. If he or she feels that it is not healing as well as they would like, they may send you to a physical therapy clinic to get the specialized care you need.

Physical Therapy

When you go to physical therapy, the therapist will help you build the muscle and strengthen your stretched ligaments and tendons through muscle building exercise and specialized stretches. The therapist will give you specific things to do at home to build your neck strength as well. It is important to note that it could take quite a few treatment sessions before you start to feel a significant change in your neck.

Getting whiplash is not an enjoyable experience at all. It is important to get treatment for it to ensure that your body heals properly so that you do not cause major damage that will affect you later on down the road. So if you think you may have gotten whiplash from a car accident, visit a neck physical therapy clinic near you, such as Robert Volski & Associates Physical Therapy.  

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