Whiplash can get described as an injury caused to the neck muscles from the backward and forward motion of the neck due to trauma. It can result in acute neck pain. Also, there can be limited movement of the neck.
How a chiropractor diagnoses a whiplash injury?
An expert chiropractor assesses the spine as a whole even if a patient complains of neck pain after an accident. They will assess the spine as there might be other regions severely affected apart from the neck. Also, the chiropractor checks for the common whiplash symptoms.
The chiropractor recognizes any zone of limited joint motion, ligament injury, muscle spasm, and intervertebral disc injury. They use a process known as the static and motion palpation that involves touch and will also check for tightness, tenderness, and how your spinal joints move.
Additionally, the chiropractor will assess the way you walk, spinal alignment, and posture. All these information will aid the chiropractor know about your body’s mechanics and how your spine works. It helps in the diagnosis process.
Apart from assessing the spine, the St George chiropractor can also ask for an MRI or an x-ray of the spine to evaluate any degenerative alterations that might have been present before you had the injury. Your neurological and physical assessment’s diagnostic outcomes and images get used to creating the ideal treatment plan.
The chiropractic treatments for whiplash
The treatment plan depends on how severe your whiplash injury is! One of the standard treatments is spinal manipulation. A few of the techniques are:
- The Flexion-distraction technique – is a hands-on process, a non-thrusting, gentle kind of spinal manipulation that treats herniated discs. There might or might not be arm pain as well. The whiplash injury might have aggravated a herniated disc. The chiropractor utilizes a slow pumping action on the disc rather than exerting force on the spine.
- Instrument-assisted manipulation – It is also a non-thrusting process. The chiropractor here makes use of a hand-held instrument without thrusting the same in the spine. It is a perfect technique for older patients who might have the degenerative joint syndrome.
- Specific spinal manipulation – Here, the chiropractor recognizes spinal joints with abnormal motion or restricted movement. With this technique, they restore the motion to the patient’s joint with a gentle thrusting process. It helps to stretch the soft tissue and stimulate the nervous system for restoring normal motion to the spine.
Other than spinal manipulation, the chiropractor might also use manual therapy for treating soft tissues. A few of the manual treatments that get used by expert chiropractors are:
- Manual joint stretching and resistance – One example of manual joint therapy is a muscle energy therapy.
- Trigger point therapy – Here, the chiropractor will recognize the particular painful, tight muscle points by exerting direct pressure using his fingers. It gets done to reduce muscle tension.
- Therapeutic massage – The chiropractors opt-in for therapeutic massage for easing the muscle tension on the neck.
These are a few of the chiropractic treatments that help with whiplash injury! If you or anyone you know is suffering from this, they can visit their nearby chiropractors and get treated.