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Care Your Neck Sprain /Strain (Whiplash) If You had Accidental Injury

An injury can be defined as the damage to a person due to the sudden or excessive transfer of physical, chemical, radiation or thermal energy.Factors influencing societal burden other than the human cost of suffering due to death, injury, disability, loss of quality of life and psychosocial morbidity are the health service costs and costs to the individual, family and society in expenditure and lost production.

Whiplash-a soft tissue injury to the neck-is also called neck sprain or neck strain. It is characterized by a collection of symptoms that occur following damage to the neck, usually because of sudden extension and flexion.Whiplash happens in motor vehicle accidents, sporting activities, accidental falls, and assault.

While the term "whiplash" is most frequently used to describe auto accident injuries (in which a person is rear-ended, hit head-on, or hit from the side), whiplash can also frequently occur during ski accidents, bike accidents, falls, blows to the head, concussions, and other head/ neck traumas.

A fractured bone is the same thing as a broken bone. They occur because a bone area is unable to support the energy placed on it. That energy can be acute, as from a car crash or a two-story fall, or chronic and low-energy repetitive activity. The latter is responsible for stress fractures, an overuse injury commonly seen in athletes. The increased demand places on the bone causes it to remodel and become stronger in areas of higher stress, but if the repetitive demands become too great, a stress fracture can result.

The most frequent complaints are headaches and stiffness in the neck and the back of the head. These symptoms appear within the first couple of days after the accident and usually pass after a few days to a few weeks.Severe whiplash can also include injury to the intervertebral joints, discs, ligaments, cervical muscles and nerve roots.The intensity of neck pain,
the level of physical functioning, and the presence or absence of depressive symptoms were strongly associated with the time to claim closure in both systems.

The term whiplash was first used in 1928, and despite its replacement by synonyms (such as acceleration flexion-extension neck injury and soft tissue cervical hyperextension injury), it continues to be used to describe this common soft tissue neck injury.Fortunately, whiplash is treatable and most symptoms resolve completely. Initially, whiplash is treated with a soft cervical collar. This collar may need to be worn for 2 to 3 weeks.The elimination of compensation for pain and suffering is associated with a decreased incidence and improved prognosis of whiplash injury.

The incidence and prognosis of whiplash injury from motor vehicle collisions may be related to eligibility for compensation for pain and suffering.The intensity of neck pain, the level of physical functioning, and the presence or absence of depressive symptoms were strongly associated with the time to claim closure in both systems.

There is a direct relationship between vehicle damage and the probability of developing chronic pain following whiplash trauma.Chronic pain following acute whiplash injury is caused or worsened by treatment and diagnostic testing .The risk of chronic neck pain among acutely injured whiplash victims is the same as the prevalence of chronic neck pain in the general population .

Previously several data suggested that result found that TMD/TMJ (Temporomandibular Disorders) injuries are not associated with whiplash trauma . But most recently a Swedish study found that about one in three people who suffer whiplash is at risk of developing delayed jaw pain/dysfunction that may require treatment .

You may not have heard of it, but you use it hundreds of times every day. It is the Temporo-Mandibular Joint (TMJ), the joint where the mandible (the lower jaw) joins the temporal bone of the skull, immediately in front of the ear on each side of your head.Two joints and several jaw muscles make it possible to open and close the mouth. They work together when you chew, speak, and swallow. These structures include muscles and ligaments, as well as the jaw bone, the mandible (lower jaw) with two joints, the TMJ’s.

A small disc of cartilage separates the bones, much like in the knee joint, so that the mandible may slide easily; each time you chew you move it. But you also move it every time you talk and each time you swallow (every three minutes or so). It is, therefore, one of the most frequently used of all joints of the body and one of the most complex.

TMJ is estimated to account for as much as thirty billion dollars a year in lost productivity. Americans lose 550 million work days every year due to symptoms associated with TMJ, with facial pain and headache being the most common complaints. Accordingly, analgesics directed at these symptoms are among the top selling over the counter medicines in our society.

Publishing in the issue of the Journal of the American Dental Association, researchers at Umea University studied short- and long-term temporomandibular joint (TMJ) pain and dysfunction in 60 patients involved in rear-end car collisions. The patients were checked when they were brought to hospital emergency rooms after a crash, and again one year later.

Patients who suffered whiplash were five times more likely to have TMJ pain and/or dysfunction immediately after a crash than uninjured people in a control group. A year later, 34 percent of whiplash patients had developed TMJ symptoms, compared with 7 percent of those in the control group.

The TM joints, located on each side of the head, work together to enable movements needed to speak and chew. Problems that affect the proper function of this system of muscles, ligaments, discs and bones can result in a painful TMJ disorder, according to the American Dental Association.

Here are some other tips to help you avoid neck strain and pain:

Try doing stretching exercises before bed and first thing in the morning;
Don’t sleep on your stomach—this position puts great pressure on the neck; and
Don’t “over-pillow” your neck; keep your neck and spine in a neutral position. The neutral position rule also holds true for people who spend time working at computer terminals. Again, don’t bend your neck forward.
Keep the object close to your body. Your hips and legs absorb most of the weight, and you will put less strain on your back and neck.
Consult your physical therapist to find the set-up that is right for you.