Fighting Fit Physiotherapy Nerang Gold Coast
whiplash

How To Treat Whiplash

How To Treat Whiplash!

What is Whiplash?

Whiplash is a common condition that affects people following a high velocity trauma to the head and neck.

You are probably thinking a car accident and that you are already all over this blog content.

Yes, you would be right, a car accident is one of the most common.

But you would be wrong and naïve thinking that is the only thing that causes whiplash!

So do your neck a favour and read this whole blog.

There are many other traumas, small to large, that can cause a whiplash.

Many people miss the not so common causes of whiplash and gone on to experience neck pain and whiplash symptoms months to years later.

Common causes of whiplash:

  • A fall onto the ground, either from your feet or a height.
  • A push in the back
  • A tackle in footy
  • Your kid jumping up and swinging off your head
  • A punch in an assault
  • An unsuspecting soccer or football to the head
  • A sudden jolt from hitting a big bump or hole while in the 4WD

Many of these can cause a mild up to severe episode of whiplash. It all depends on the velocity of movement or impact to the head and neck.

We have seen all these in the clinic. Often the above reasons and causes are to the surprise of the patient when we explain the event causing the problem they are experiencing.

Remember, any high velocity thrust event, expected or unexpected, to the head on the neck can create a whiplash.

Common signs and symptoms of a whiplash may be similar. However, always vary in intensity and duration from person to person.

Common signs and symptoms of a whiplash

Whiplash will be associated with three main complaints.

  • Neck Pain +/- headache
  • Stiffness
  • Loss of movement in the neck.

These symptoms can last anywhere from days in a mild presentation, to months and years in the more severe or chronic cases. They can even rear their ugly head many months or even years after the initial event and symptoms clearing!

Often a person will think they were 100% recovered, but left untreated or poorly managed, whiplash will almost always leave behind issue’s unbeknown to this person.

This is because the whiplash event changes a number of things within the nervous system:

  1. It changes the position sense of the joints of the neck disrupting the necks awareness of where the head is in space.
  2. It changes the firing pattern and signal from the brain to the muscles of the neck and surround areas including the shoulder and thoracic spine.
  3. It creates weakness and atrophy (shrinking) of muscles that hold your head up and in the most optimal position in space.

This compounds like interest on your mortgage. It keeps adding up!

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So here is what to do!

In mild cases, Panadol is sufficient for pain, keep the neck moving and normalise everything within 3 to 14 days. If your experience longer lasting symptoms or further pain, ensure you seek treatment HERE.

In moderate cases, you can expect more pain, more stiffness and a greater degree of loss of movement in the neck. Pain will often settle within 3 to 14 days, stiffness may last up to 6 weeks with gradual restoration of normal movement and function within 12 weeks.

Out of these moderate cases, 100% of them need addressing with a progressive form of treatment. This includes graded strength and movement based exercises to address stiffness, weakness and proprioception (joint position sense).

In addition, manual therapy at the correct stages of healing and symptoms works great. However, be warned, if you use manual therapy too early will exacerbate your condition and possibly lengthen your prognosis. So don’t expect it to make a magic fix early on!

Be aware, if you have been given an opiate form of medication (Panadiene Forte, Endone or stronger), it important that a weaning and cessation of medication occurs within 1-2 weeks of injury don’t keep on these drugs for many weeks or months. Your prognosis seriously sucks if you do!

In a severe case, a similar course of treatment is required to moderate cases, but will be much more intensive.

Symptoms may continue for anywhere from 6-12 months episodically. It is important that once symptoms ease (and they will), monitoring of strength and function should continue for 12 months to ensure long term outcomes and avoidance of chronic issues with the neck.

Big TIP! Ensure you don’t stop exercise in that 12 month period, within a few weeks, things will begin to slowly go backward and the work put in will be lost.

 

 

Dean Phelps Head Physiotherapist Fighting Fit Physio Gold Coast 1 e1539482136807

Dean is a registered Gold Coast Physiotherapist with undergraduate and postgraduate studies in Human Movement and Exercise Science. His background has developed his vision for Fighting Fit Physiotherapy to focus on optimal health and peak physical performance for every single patient. Utilising his many qualifications, in depth knowledge of the body and passion for exercise he can provide a holistic approach to your treatment and exercise prescription to get the best outcome.

Wry Neck

Wry Neck

What is a Wry Neck?

Have you ever woken up in the morning, tried to move your neck and found that you have significantly restricted movement with loads of pain?

It is a common story for many people.

If you have experienced this chances are you are suffering from acute wry neck or what also be termed a torticollis.

Approximately 70% of Australia’s population will experience this condition in their lifetime, and it typically occurs in younger people between the ages of 12 and 30 years of age.

The pain and dysfunction caused by this condition can have different levels of severity. The good news is that this condition will typically resolve in a short period of time either on its own or quicker with treatment.

Wry Neck - Why does it hurt so much and how can we prevent it for the future

Common signs and symptoms of acute wry neck

Pain:
The onset in Acute wry neck will typically occur upon waking in the morning. The pain will be localised to the neck region, typically to one side and will not pass the shoulder or spread into the arm.

Reduced range of movement:
The movement of the neck will be significantly restricted, again usually to one side as this is a natural protective response by the body.

The reason this occurs, is that a joint will become stiff or what is typically reported by patients as “feeling like my neck is locked”.

As a result, the muscles around the joint and through the side of the neck will become tight, further reducing your movement.

The exact cause of wry neck is not completely understood. However, some of the common reported episodes are reported by patients as:

  • Sleeping posture or poor pillow
  • Inadequate work station ergonomics
  • Weakness and poor endurance of the neck musculature
  • Weakness and poor endurance of musculature surrounding the shoulder
  • Sleeping with a cold breeze or air con blowing on them directly all night
  • A past history of wry neck

As mentioned earlier, this condition will typically resolve quite quickly with treatment.

The best form of treatment is Physiotherapy. Yes, we maybe biased here, but our treatments are more effective when compared to things like manipulation, massage or some of the weird and wonderful things you can find on the internet for it.

How to treat a Wry Neck

At Fighting Fit, the first thing must be a detailed assessment of your neck. This will determine which treatment technique/s will best benefit you for improving both pain and range of movement!

The most common treatment will be soft tissue techniques and joint mobilisations. Once range is restored, specific movement based exercises will follow to ensure the treatment effect continues and normal motion of the neck is maintained post therapy.

This combination of treatment will typically resolve your pain and restore full movement within in 1-3 sessions.

However, if any underlying factors such as previous history of wry neck, trauma to the head and neck such as a whiplash are identified in your assessment. You will need further treatment in order to address the underlying cause of the issue and stop wry neck becoming chronic.

Later phases of treatment will include muscle activation exercises which are prescribed to begin strengthening the neck. These exercises will then be progressed to more advanced exercises involving bands and eventually weighted exercises. This is the most important part as it significantly reduces the risk of your condition returning in future. So don’t skip out on this.

Whiplash injury treatment

What can you do if you don’t access a physio for wry neck?

Apply heat to the area that is painful.

This can help ease the muscle tension in the neck and can improve movement of the joint itself.

While suffering from the pain and dysfunction it is also important to concentrate on relaxed unguarded movement in your available range.

If you are constantly tensing the muscles around your neck and experiencing restricted movement it can create more stiffness in the joint and increase the muscle tension worsening your condition.

Begin some light movement based exercises

It is important to only move in your available range of movement and concentrate on keeping it as relaxed as possible.

Following using heat, simple movements either forward and backward, or rotating side to side will help free up the muscles and joints. Just don’t push to hard into pain, it won’t help.

Once it begins to settle and movement is returning, go a little further each day until full motion is restored.

Remember, if it doesn’t fully return to normal, don’t leave it! Get it assessed, treated and back to 100% to avoid further neck pain in the future.