Whiplash How Did This Happen

By: Dr. Richard Schwartz

The accident injury doctor

You’re in your car, relaxed, waiting and suddenly you hear the screeching of tires. In that split second and before you can brace yourself, you feel the car lunge forward. You’ve been rear-ended. What happens in this brief moment can surprise you and what you do about it in the next few hours, days, and weeks can and will affect your future health. Chiropractic can help stop the harmful effects of car accidents that happen in Ambler, Pa , Horsham, Pa , Glenside, Pa In fact Dr. Schwartz helps all types of injuries from auto, work injuries to sport injuries even herniated disc. Please read on to see how you can be affected by a car accident

Upon impact, your body pushes deeply into the seat. Your head, momentarily isolated by your neck, delays its reaction while your body quickly reaches the limits of the seat. Then, your body instantly changes directions, moving forward to the limits of your seat belt. Now, your head starts moving backward in the opposite direction. Unrestrained by a seat belt your head is jerked back and forward beyond its normal limits. Your head is always going opposite of your body. What happens when you hold a piece of paper and move your hands in opposite directions, it tears. This is exactly how we can tear the ligaments and muscles of the neck. Everything is happening in slow motion, yet you are unable to prevent your head from whipping back and forth.

How can we minimize our injuries in a rear-end collision, we must be restrained by a seat belt this obviously prevents severe injuries and excessive forward motion of your body. The second crucial factor is the position of the headrest. It has to be no more than 1 inch away from the back of your head and the height has to extend above the top of your head. With the proper positioning the headrest can prevent excessive backward motion. If the position is incorrect the headrest actually adds to the problem by creating a fulcrum, which allows your head extend over the top and increases the stretching of ligaments and muscle tissue in the front of your neck.

Don’t minimize your own injuries because your car has sustained little or no damage in Horsham, Pa . It has been proven that a 5 mph impact can result in soft tissue injury. Signs and symptoms from a whiplash type injury can be many and vary in severity. The most common symptom is neck pain, which may take a few hours to begin due to the adrenaline rush. Headaches are the second most common symptom, 85% of all headaches are tension headaches, and we know after the above description of an accident we would have tension. Do not let these signs and symptoms go for a long period of time, because pain is an indication that something is wrong and just blocking the pain will not fix the problem. A thorough evaluation would be required to identify the problem and to determine the treatment you need. You have to restore proper motion with in the neck, in order to allow the muscles and ligaments of your neck to repair and heal. Don’t wait or think, my accident wasn’t that bad, seek proper care. Chiropractic can help. Dr. Schwartz a local chiropractor in Horsham, Pa is a specialist in accident and injury rehabilitation.

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