The most common symptoms are pain, swelling and stiffness of the lower back. You may find the area very tender to touch and muscle spasm may surround the injury making movement more difficult and painful. Additional symptoms include: weakness.
How long does back pain last from whiplash?
Whiplash can cause pain in the upper back or neck. You should start to feel much better within a few days, and the symptoms will likely completely disappear within three months. If your pain doesn’t start to get better, though, you could have an issue with your discs or facet joints and need to visit the doctor.
Why does my back hurt from whiplash?
One unexpected symptom of whiplash can be lower back pain. Even though whiplash is a neck injury, damage to your neck can reverberate throughout much of your body. Whiplash can cause pain throughout your back as it compensates for the damaged soft tissue in your neck.
How do you detect whiplash?
X-rays. Fractures, dislocations or arthritis can be identified by X-rays of the neck taken from many angles. Computerized tomography (CT). This special type of X-ray can produce cross-sectional images of bone and show possible bone damage. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
What does whiplash feel like in back Related Questions
What are the red flags of whiplash?
The two most common symptoms are headache and disabling neck pain, with or without referral to the shoulder or arm.
Is whiplash damage permanent?
Depending on how powerful the crash was, a whiplash injury can even lead to permanent disability that will require near-constant treatment for both pain and mobility issues. Even a minor whiplash injury can lead to serious bodily harm if left untreated for long enough.
Does whiplash show up on xray?
The difficulty with diagnosing whiplash is that it does not really show up on an X-ray, CT scan or an MRI scan. The diagnosis is usually made by asking the patient how they feel and then proceeding from there. People usually have pain in the back of their neck and they find that the pain is worse when they move.
How do you know if whiplash is serious?
your symptoms spread to your shoulders or arms. moving your head becomes painful. you have numbness or weakness in your arms.
Is massage good for whiplash?
As it turns out, massage can be a great way to manage the aches associated with whiplash. By loosening tight muscles and increasing blood circulation in the neck and shoulders, massage techniques for whiplash can offer some much-needed relief.
What is the best treatment for whiplash?
Painkillers. These range from over-the-counter drugs like acetaminophen or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like ibuprofen or naproxen, etc. Anti-inflammatory drugs. Muscle relaxers. Nerve blocks.
What happens if whiplash goes untreated?
Because a whiplash injury is a strain on your neck muscles as well as the tendons and ligaments in your neck, untreated whiplash can lead to spinal misalignment. When your spine is out of alignment, you can experience chronic structural problems, literally from your head to your feet.
Will whiplash heal on its own?
Here’s the good news: given time, whiplash should heal on its own. To help with recovery, you should: Ice your neck to reduce pain and swelling as soon as you can after the injury.
Can you exercise with whiplash?
As mentioned above, you should not exercise for the first 24 to 48 hours after incurring a whiplash injury. But as your neck begins to heal, you can slowly add back activities that necessitate moving your neck from side to side or up and down.
Where is whiplash injury seen?
Whiplash typically occurs when your head is forcefully and quickly thrown backward and then forward. This motion can injure bones in the spine, disks between the bones, ligaments, muscles, nerves and other tissues of the neck. A whiplash injury may result from: Auto accidents.
What is Grade 1 whiplash?
Grade I: Neck complaint of pain, stiffness or tenderness only. No physical sign(s). Grade II: Neck complaint AND musculoskeletal sign(s). Musculoskeletal signs include decreased range of motion and point tenderness. Grade III: Neck complaint AND neurological sign(s).
What is an example of whiplash?
Whiplash happens when your head is suddenly jolted backwards and forwards in a whip like movement. This can cause some of the muscles and ligaments in your neck to stretch. Common reasons that people get whiplash include: being involved in a car accident.
Is whiplash a sprain or strain?
Whiplash, also called neck sprain or neck strain, is a soft tissue injury to the neck. It is characterized by a collection of symptoms that occur following damage to the neck, usually because of sudden extension and flexion (bending).
What category of back pain is whiplash?
The pain often spreads into the upper back, between the shoulder blades, or down the arm. Neck pain that goes down the arm is called radiculopathy. Low back pain (LBP) can occur as a result of a whiplash injury.
What are the after effects of whiplash?
Neck pain. Headache. Dizziness. Ringing in your ears. Temporomandibular (jaw) pain. Hypersensitivity to cold and heat. Increased sensitivity to pain. Poor concentration or memory problems.
Is whiplash seen on MRI?
While whiplash does not have a definitive appearance in MRIs, they are useful for diagnosis. First, MRIs can rule out things like fractures, slipped discs, or other severe injuries that may cause pain, allowing doctors to determine whiplash as the primary injury to treat.