Whiplash is a neck condition that is caused by a sudden movement of the head, usually brought on by an accident of some sort. The head can be jerked backward, forward, or sideways because of a sudden jolting of the rest of the body. Types of accidents that tend to cause whiplash include car accidents and sports injuries, but there are other ways in which the neck can be moved suddenly and violently. Perhaps the biggest threat with whiplash is that it can take months or even years for symptoms to appear, sometimes causing further injury or complications. Many times people wait to seek care until there are signs of more serious complications. It is not an injury that one can expect to be treated once and be done with. For this reason, it is usually best to seek chiropractic care from the onset of the problem, or from when there is first a possibility of whiplash having occurred.

Detecting Whiplash - It used to be hard to determine if a person had whiplash so it was often misdiagnosed or basically written off as the patient being something of a hypochondriac. This made it especially hard on a patient who was suffering from neck pain, but unable to get any treatment or medical coverage from insurance companies. However, nowadays there are various imaging scan devices that can be used to detect injury to soft tissue so that, even without broken bones, a person can receive treatment for whiplash.

Symptoms - Whiplash symptoms in the neck that do not incur any broken bones include neck pain and stiffness. The pain usually does not start to be felt until two hours after the accident occurs. However, it can also take up to two days for the symptoms to appear. The stiffness occurs as a result of torn muscles or other ligament damage as an effort for the muscles to take over supporting the head. It means less movement of the head.

Another common symptom of whiplash is headaches that can occur either on one side of the head or on both sides, can be constant or on intervals, and only in certain areas or isolated to one spot, often behind the eyes. As with the neck pain, tightened muscles are the culprit.

More general symptoms include blurry vision, difficulty swallowing, fatigue, dizziness, pain between the shoulder blades, pain in the arms or legs, pain the feet or hands, lower back pain or stiffness, nausea, vertigo, ringing noises in the ears, any numbness or tingling, shoulder pain, or pain in the jaw or face.