What is Whiplash? – Las Vegas Dr Explains

Whiplash is an injury that is caused in the neck region due to car accidents or a Motor Vehicle Collision (MVC). However, this form of injury can also result due to a number of other reasons that include bar-room brawls, slip-and-fall, freak accidents in contact sports, etc.

Debunking the mechanism of such injuries

The normal tissues around the neck have limits to how far they can stretch, known as the elastic barrier. The injury occurs when these tissues get stretched beyond their elastic barrier. This usually happens when the head moves in a forward-and-backward motion far too quickly for the tissues to adjust to the movement. Whiplash is very common in car accidents, and major car accident treatment procedures often contain the necessary processes to detect and treat such injuries quickly.
When a car accident or MVC occurs, the head of the driver or any other passengers in the car receives a jolt on collision. Since the car is in forward motion at the time of the collision, the head is also in the same motion with respect to the surroundings and not the stationary body of the person. Now, when the car collides with another object, the forward motion of the car is obstructed and immediately forced in the opposite direction. The same force is also experienced by the head of the person, causing the head to fall forwards and immediately forced backwards. This rapid forward-and-backward motion causes the tissues, muscles or tendons in the neck region to experience a lot of stress.
The force of the jolt determines the extent to which the tissues are stretched. If the tissues are stretched excessively, a sprain injury is caused in the neck region, which is Whiplash. This injury must be treated immediately by a professional car accident doctor so that the effects can be minimized as much as possible.

Different types of Whiplash injuries

There are two types of injuries caused by Whiplash – Sprains and Strains. Sprains refer to the tearing of ligaments while Strains refer to tearing of muscles or muscle tendons. These injuries can happen either on the front or the back of the neck, and even on both sides of the neck at the same time. Depending on the extent to which the tears occur, the sprains and the strains can be classified into 1st degree tears, 2nd degree tears, and 3rd degree tears, and are more difficult to treat by a car accident chiropractor as they get progressively worse.

Treatment of Whiplash

The recovery time of the neck tissue suffering from whiplash largely depends on the extent of the damage. In 1995, a prognosis scale was first introduced and validated in 2001. This scale showed the Type 1 injuries that only caused slight pain, but no real loss of neck movements required shortest recovery time. Type 2 injuries that caused a restriction to neck movements, but no neurological damage took slightly longer to heal. Type 3 injuries resulting in restricted neck movements along with substantial neurological damage took the longest time to heal. They also resulted in long-terms effects that were difficult to treat.
Whiplash is a serious condition, and must be treated with extreme care. In case of such an injury, it is important to get in touch with a southern Nevada chiropractic doctor to get the injuries treated quickly at hands of a professional.