Whiplash is a painful type of injury that occurs when the soft tissues in your neck are damaged by a sudden impact. Many people think that whiplash is something they just have to deal with, but you don't have to let this type of injury heal without help.
A chiropractor can provide a number of treatments that will target the soft tissues and muscles in the neck and help you find relief from your whiplash symptoms.
1. Ultrasound
Ultrasound is a technique used by modern chiropractors to help reduce muscle inflammation.
An ultrasound machine sends sound waves deep into the muscles of your neck. These sound waves help to stimulate the muscles into producing a gentle heat. Circulation is also enhanced during an ultrasound treatment.
Increased circulation can help speed up the healing process and eliminate muscle spasms, stiffness, and pain.
Ultrasound is usually the first type of treatment a chiropractor will offer. Any inflammation in your neck will need to be reduced significantly before more hands-on treatment for whiplash can be administered.
2. Trigger Point Therapy
Once the inflammation in your neck has subsided, a chiropractor may suggest trigger point therapy to help you recover from your whiplash injury. Trigger point therapy is a type of manual treatment that allows a chiropractor to identify specific areas of muscle tension and pain.
Direct pressure using the hands and fingers will be applied to these areas with the intention of releasing muscle tension and eliminating the pain that accompanies muscle tightness.
Many people with whiplash injuries can experience tightness in the muscles of the neck and shoulders, so trigger point therapy can be a useful tool in helping you maintain your range of motion as your soft tissues heal after a whiplash injury.
3. Therapeutic Massage
Another type of hands-on whiplash treatment chiropractors provide is therapeutic massage. Unlike traditional massage, whose primary purpose is to provide relaxation, therapeutic massage is meant to increase circulation and ease tension in injured muscles.
Whiplash can cause significant muscle tightness. This tightness can make it extremely painful to move the head and neck. Therapeutic massage uses specialized hand movements that ease muscle tension and help improve the flow of blood to an injured muscle.
Since whiplash is exclusively a soft tissue and muscle injury, therapeutic massage can be an effective source of relief from whiplash pain.
4. Graston Therapy
Modern chiropractors are able to offer their patients access to a unique treatment known as Graston therapy. This treatment is a specialized therapy that relies on patented tools to help a chiropractor treat your injuries.
The instruments are used to massage affected soft tissues after a whiplash injury. The tools are able to reach deeper levels of muscle than a chiropractor's hand alone. This means that Graston therapy can provide significant pain and tension relief.
Chiropractors can utilize Graston therapy to treat recent whiplash injuries, and they can also use this therapy to help reduce scar tissue that might be left from a previous whiplash injury.
Since many whiplash sufferers can experience symptoms for an extended period of time following a whiplash incident, Graston therapy offers a viable treatment option for alleviating chronic issues caused by whiplash.
Chiropractors can do more than just crack your back. The sooner you are able to see a chiropractor following your injury, the faster you will be able to recover.
Modern chiropractors have a wide range of tools and techniques at their disposal that can be used to treat whiplash injuries. Both acute and chronic whiplash symptoms can be treated by a chiropractor using ultrasound, trigger point therapy, therapeutic massage, and Graston Therapy.
Share4 June 2021
Children are energetic and busy little people, and it is important that health needs are carefully monitored as they grow. That is where regular visits to a chiropractor are beneficial. A visit to a chiropractor helps your child's health in many ways. From checking spine growth, correcting posture, minimising sports injuries and treating back pain caused by sitting at the school desk, these are all subjects discussed within these blog posts as they are all areas where a chiropractor helps your family. Just like taking your child to their doctor and dentist, an annual visit with a chiropractor helps your child to grow up stronger with less growing pains.