Clarksville TN Chiropractic Office Helps Whiplash
Whiplash is a neck injury that can follow a car accident. Before any whiplash treatment, the first question is: does the injury need urgent medical care? Some do. After that, our chiropractors can examine a whiplash injury and tell you straight if care with us fits or someone else is the better choice.
What is whiplash?
Whiplash is a neck injury linked to a sudden jolt of the head, from a rear-end collision, a fall or a sports injury. Symptoms can include neck pain, stiffness, headaches and pain in the shoulder or arm muscles, and they may take several hours to show up.
Get an urgent medical assessment after a neck injury if you have severe pain, tingling, weakness in your hands, arms or legs, difficulty walking or sitting upright, or an electric-shock feeling through your neck, back or limbs. Those are the signs the NHS says need urgent care. Please don't wait for an appointment with us, and don't drive yourself.
How is whiplash diagnosed?
A whiplash evaluation with our Clarksville TN chiropractor starts with your history: how the injury happened, what symptoms followed and any medical care you've had since. Then we examine how your neck moves, where muscles are tight or swollen, and look for signs of an irritated nerve. SIRA's whiplash guideline describes this kind of assessment: history, neck movement, tenderness and a neurological check. Those findings guide the next step, though an exam won't always pinpoint the one structure that got hurt. If your history or exam suggests you need imaging or an emergency assessment to check for a fracture, dislocation or other injury, we'll tell you.
Chiropractic treatment for whiplash in Clarksville TN
Once serious injury has been considered, we'll go over what we found before recommending anything, and build the plan around your findings and goals. For acute whiplash, SIRA's guide recommends staying active and doing suitable neck exercises. A doctor, physical therapist or chiropractor can work out an activity plan with you and talk through pain-relief options. The same guideline finds limited evidence for manual therapy and no evidence for or against ultrasound, so ultrasound isn't something to count on to clear up inflammation.
Neck manipulation also depends on what the exam finds, and it isn't automatic even after the early swelling settles. It carries risks too. Temporary soreness can happen, and serious neurological events and neck-artery injuries associated with stroke have also been reported, though their relationship to manipulation is uncertain.
Medical care, physical therapy and a guided exercise plan may be the right alternatives, or part of your care. Whichever you choose, progress can be checked along the way, and the plan can change if it isn't helping. If we are not able to help you with your problem or are unable to reduce your pain levels, we will make sure to give you a recommendation to another experienced provider. Call our Clarksville office with questions about a whiplash evaluation.
Follow the evidence
Research, with context.
Selected published sources behind what we've written, each with what it found and what it can't tell us. We give you both halves because no paper can diagnose you or predict how your own care will go.
Comprehensive physiotherapy exercise programme or advice for chronic whiplash (PROMISE): a pragmatic randomised controlled trial
172 people with grade I or II whiplash lasting more than three months.
What it foundAn intensive exercise program did not improve pain more than an advice session with telephone support at the measured follow-ups.
What it can't tell usIt compares two specific approaches to chronic whiplash. It isn't evidence that all exercise is useless, and it doesn't cover every acute injury.
Publication details & citation
Michaleff et al. Comprehensive physiotherapy exercise programme or advice for chronic whiplash (PROMISE): a pragmatic randomised controlled trial. The Lancet. 2014. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(14)60457-8.
Read the publication record
Our editorial policy explains how to read these sources and what our clinical-review labels mean.