Whiplash is condition that involves injury to head and neck area. It occurs when your neck is abruptly taken backward and forward as it occurs in rear ended collision. Soft tissues(ligaments and muscles) in your neck and spinal joints are overstretched.
Cause of Whiplash
Motor Vehicle Accident
Roller Coaster and Amusement park rides
Direct impact on head
Horse back riding
Contact sports (hockey, rugby, boxing)
Common Symptoms
Neck pain
Stiffness
difficulty moving neck
headaches pain in shoulder blade/upper back
tingling/numbness in arm weakness in arm/grip
difficulty sleeping
crackling in neck
sore neck
Physio Treatment Aims to Achieve the Following:
Decrease pain and inflammation
Improve mobility in your neck joints
Strengthen neck and upper back muscles
Improve flexibility in neck and upper back muscles
Improve posture
Improve activity level
Prevent future recurrences
To achieve these goals, Physiotherapist will incorporate following things in your treatment plan: Education- Registered Physiotherapist will educate you on the neck movement or activities (awkward sleeping/sitting postures) that further increases stress over nerves in neck and exacerbate your symptoms. Pain Management- Registered Physiotherapist in Mississauga will use different modalities (Interferential Electrical Stimulation, Acupuncture) to help you with your pain. IFC helps in pain relief by stimulation nerves and relaxing tense muscles in your neck. Acupuncture helps to decrease the inflammation over the nerve and promote healing. It enhances the natural ability of your body to heal by stimulating the deeper nerves in your neck. Manual Therapy- It’s a manual treatment technique performed by Registered Physiotherapist in Mississauga. Registered Physiotherapist depending on their assessment findings and your level of tolerance might use gentle manual traction to decrease the pressure coming onto the nerves. This will alleviate the pain by decreasing the compression on the nerves. Registered Physiotherapist might also perform techniques to open up the canal through which the nerve exits the spinal cord. this drastically helps to decrease undue pressure coming onto nerve as the foramen are widened. Registered Physiotherapist will release the tension in your neck muscles that would decrease stiffness in your neck. Posture Correction Exercises- Correct Alignment of your spine will prevent any undue tension on your neck muscles and nerves. Exercises for your posture will also help in correct alignment of your neck- thus decreasing undue stresses coming onto ligaments and spinal nerves. Being in correct posture prevents any undue spinal muscle fatigue.Muscle strengthening- Muscles around your wrist tend to become weak will develop some tightness secondary to injury. Registered Physiotherapist in Mississauga will prescribe exercises that would strengthen your neck and postural muscles. Preventing recurrences-Registered Physiotherapist will educate you on strategies to prevent recurrences of pinched nerveUse of assistive devices -Use of cervical pillow at night and lumbar roll while sitting at desk/car.
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