Whiplash treatment at Amba Clinic
What is whiplash?
Whiplash can be described as an acceleration/deceleration injury to the neck (cervical spine). It usually occurs in car accidents but similar mechanism injuries can happen in sports or if someone falls and hits their head. Most often the structures (muscles, ligaments, tendons etc) are damaged more at the back of the neck but they can also be injured at the front.
What are effects of whiplash?
Quite often, the effects of a whiplash are not felt until the next day or a few days after the injury. Some say this pain is mainly due to damage of the discs but alot of the structures will be affected and not the discs alone. It can be quite a difficult condition to treat and some people can expect to feel the effects of trauma for months. Like with many injuries, due to other parts of the body or area compensating for a decrease in function, these parts compensating can also be affected at a later stage.
Whiplash treatment
For the first few days, a whiplash injury will be quite painful due to the presence of inflammation. After a few days gentle exercises can be started (pain allowing) and the area can be treated with gentle massage and mobilisation. In the past soft collars were given out alot but the view on whether this is beneficial or not has changed and soft collars are no longer handed out so freely.