Motor vehicle accident whiplash is a very common traumatic injury to the neck. Other common ways of getting whiplash include falling off a ladder, falling flat on your chin or a sporting injury, such as a head high tackle. 

Whiplash is the most common injury in car accidents. It can occur during a collision from any direction, but being rear-ended is the most common. In this case, the initial impact shunts your body forward and your neck is thrown backwards and then, following the momentum of your body, it’s violently thrust forward, like a whip. More tissue damage occurs if your head is tilted and/or turned at the moment of impact.

A combination of high compressive, sheer and bending forces can injure a number of soft tissues in your neck including muscles, tendons, joint capsule and ligaments, injuries which are not detectable on x-rays. Due to your body’s brilliant self-repair abilities, about 80% of whiplash cases recover within the first 6 months.

Headache, usually starting at the base and extending to the front of your head, is one of the most common symptoms after whiplash injury and is the main reason for ongoing pain and disability. It’s well established by research that these headaches most often originate in your neck.

To achieve long term resolution it is important to identify and manage underlying causative and maintaining factors.

Osteopathic treatment may help relieve whiplash by : 

• restoring joint stability, range of movement, alignment, nutrition and lubrication of the joint;
• restoring soft tissue flexibility and strength;
• improving blood and lymphatic flow into and out of the joint and surrounding tissues;
• improving nerve function;
• remodelling tissue architecture;
• and stimulating tissue regeneration.

To achieve long term resolution it is important to identify and manage underlying causative and maintaining factors.