The three most important factors when causing injury in a car crash are:

1. Were you rear-ended?
2. Did you see it coming?
3. Was your head turned in another direction?

Please note that car damage is not one of them.

There is NO relationship between the severity of a collision and disability or required treatment.

In fact when there is zero damage to a vehicle, patients require more treatment because the force is direct to the cervical spine and not the vehicle. When a vehicle absorbs crash energy and gets crushed, it decreases the rate at which your body slows down in the accident. This means that more energy is absorbed into the patient’s spine. Therefore, injuries from the crash are directly correlated.

Other interesting points:

1. Most whiplash patients start to experience pain the day of the accident.
2. A small percentage of patients who develop chronic pain, experience a delay in time between the day of collision and when the pain starts.

The predominate symptoms for whiplash are:

1. Neck pain
2. Headache
3. Shoulder pain
4. Scapular pain 
5. Arm pain
6. Face pain
7. Trapezius muscle pain

Whiplash Injury can also cause:

1. Low back pain 
2. Disturbances in sight
3. Dizziness
4. Tinnitus
5. Weakness
6. Fatigue
7. Poor concentration
8. Poor memory
9. Difficulty sleeping
10. Psychological changes. Ex: Depression

The tissue sources for chronic low back pain from whiplash are due to injury in the sacroiliac joints and injury to the low back facet joint,. However, the cervical facet joint is the most common source of chronic neck pain after whiplash followed by disc pain. Most symptoms of whiplash are the result of disturbed proprioreceptive information from the neck. Some patients even experience pain from both neck and back.

To summarize, the unaware victim of a rear-end collision gets the circuitry of the upper neck and brain scrambled. These short circuits in the brain and neck can cause a great number of health problems. Women are at greater risk than men in these types of injuries. There is no drug which can completely alleviate the pain. They need to have their circuits reconnected and the mechanical function of the injured tissues improved. This is one of the reasons why chiropractic care has such a great success with whiplash-injured patients. 

If you’re the victim of a car accident in Wesley Chapel, FL, Augustine Chiropractic is here to help. With a specialty treating auto accident injuries, they’ll help you understand your injuries and design a treatment regimen to facilitate the recovery process. They can treat back, neck, and joint pain using the latest chiropractic knowledge and state-of-the-art equipment. Learn more about auto injury treatment by visiting them online. You can also call (813) 994-6008 to schedule an appointment today.