Most people who have whiplash feel better within a few weeks and don't seem to have any lasting effects from the injury. However, some people continue to feel pain for several months or even years after the injury. It's hard to predict how each person with whiplash will recover. If you feel stiff in your neck and shoulders after a car accident or other incident that causes your head to move forward or backward, you may be wondering about whiplash.
How do you know if you have it? And if it does, how long will the pain last?The Dr. Robert Bolash, a pain management specialist, answers our questions about what causes whiplash, who is most at risk and how long it can last. Whiplash occurs when structures in the neck, including discs, ligaments, nerves, or muscles, are damaged. Sometimes, a small vessel tears after an accident and releases inflammatory substances in the neck, causing swelling and pain.
The more severe the pain after the initial injury and the higher the level of anxiety, the more likely it is that short-term acute neck pain will become a chronic problem. The goal of treatment is to recover range of motion as quickly as possible. We started physical therapy early and focused on stretching, turning and moving the neck back and forth. We rarely advise patients to wear a soft neck collar, as we prefer to keep our joints and muscles moving rather than immobilizing them. If you're still experiencing significant pain after three months, it's a good idea to ask your doctor to evaluate your condition.
Then, he can recommend further treatment, if needed. Tight muscles and neck pain are common after an accident. But do you have whiplash? Find out who is at risk and how long the pain can last. The recovery time depends on the severity of your whiplash. Most cases are resolved within a few days.
However, other neck strains may take weeks or longer to heal. Remember that everyone heals at a different rate. Very few people have long-term complications from whiplash. The recovery time usually ranges from a few days to several weeks. According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, most people recover completely within 3 months. Once you begin treatment for whiplash, the recovery period may vary depending on the severity of the shock and the injury itself.
Most commonly, whiplash heals completely about six months after the incident, but about a third of people report neck pain ten years later. A smaller fraction experience chronic pain at the site of whiplash for the rest of their lives. Some cases of whiplash resolve within a few weeks or months, especially if the victim receives appropriate medical treatment soon after the injury. But in other cases, the pain and restraint of a whiplash injury can last for years or even a lifetime. While whiplash may not return, if left untreated, it may never go away. Whiplash is an injury to the neck after a quick and strong movement of the neck back and forth, much like the crunch of a whip, hence the name whiplash.
Florida Spine and Injury has a team of highly trained accident doctors who are committed to helping each of their patients return to their normal health and lifestyle after a whiplash injury. While most cases resolve in a matter of weeks or months, it's not uncommon for car accident victims and other injured people to suffer the long-term effects of whiplash. This is worrying because whiplash is also one of the most common personal injury lawsuits, and misconceptions have helped fuel some unfortunate stereotypes and stigmas surrounding the whole notion of whiplash. Sometimes it can take hours, days, or even weeks for symptoms of whiplash to occur, and untreated whiplash can have serious, long-term health effects. When doctors who write in medical journals describe the effects of whiplash, they often use terminology such as “cervical acceleration-deceleration (CAD)”, “disorders associated with whiplash” or chronic whiplash syndrome, terms that refer to both traumatic impact that whiplash has on anatomy of neck and surrounding areas as well as inflammatory responses that some people's bodies have in face of initial injury. So don't make mistake of ignoring symptoms of whiplash or putting off making statement about long-term effects of whiplash. This should be cause for concern because whiplash is one of most common injuries after car accident.
If you feel tension in your neck and shoulders after car accident or other incident that causes your head to move forward or backward, you may be wondering about whiplash. However, whiplash can occur in any accident in which person's head or neck suddenly and forcefully sway back and forth.
