After any car accident, fall, sports injury, or another traumatic physical event, whiplash is always one of the main concerns of any doctor. While you’re probably familiar with the condition, whiplash is actually a cluster of symptoms rather than a single medical issue. The symptoms can vary and appear as a response to a sudden, violent movement of the head and neck. A jerking motion back and forth causes the soft tissues in the neck to stretch beyond their normal capability, leading to damage to the tissues, nerves, and bones in your upper spine. Left untreated, this damage can worsen and lead to lifelong problems, making early detection crucial.
One thing that makes whiplash tricky to spot is that the symptoms do not always appear immediately. It is not uncommon to go days after an accident to notice whiplash symptoms, which has already allowed the damage to worsen. At the first sign of problems, you should seek medical attention to prevent long term effects of whiplash.
Five Early Signs of Whiplash
1. Your Head Feels “Stuck
One of the most common signs of whiplash is a stiff neck, making it difficult to move your head from side to side, or up and down. This is a response to your muscles, tendons, and ligaments that may be strained, sprained, or torn after the force of an accident. Vertebrae that have been jolted out of alignment may also lead to difficulty with movement of the head and neck. When this stiffness is left untreated, it can cause a lack of support in your neck muscles and lead to eventual instability.
2. Headaches and Cognitive Problems
The same motion that causes whiplash also often leads to a concussion, a minor brain injury caused by an external force to the brain. When jolted, the brain can crash into the skull, leading to this issue.
Concussion symptoms often cross over with whiplash symptoms for this reason. Headaches after an accident, especially ones that begin at the base of the skull and move upwards, are a sign of both injuries. You may also notice problems with focus, memory, or concentration. Personality changes are also possible, including abnormal anxiety or irritability.
3. Ringing in Your Ears
Have you ever left a loud event, like a concert, and felt a ringing in your ears? When that feeling is constant, it’s known as Tinnitus. This can occur as a result of nerve or even brain damage resulting from the sudden motion involved in your whiplash injury.
4. It Hurts to Chew and Swallow
During the event of whiplash, your head and next typically hyperextend, which can lead to a misalignment of the jaw in addition to the damage of soft tissues in your neck. This jaw injury can make simple actions like eating painful. It may also be noticeable when you try to speak or yawn.
5. Your Body Hurts and Tingles
A slight tingling in your fingers may not feel related to a head and neck injury like whiplash, but it can be. Damage to the cervical spine can cause nerve damage or changes impacting the arms, sending the “pins and needles” feeling down to your hands or fingers. This might be temporary at first, but even mild nerve damage can worsen over time, leading to impaired mobility or paralysis in severe cases.
Other Signs of Whiplash
Additional things to look out for include the following:
- Neck pain that worsens with movement
- Tenderness in the upper shoulder, back, or arms
- Fatigue
- Dizziness
- Sleep problems
- Blurred vision
When to See a Doctor
After any accident or fall, you should see a doctor as soon as possible to rule out any serious injuries. This also allows them to identify signs of whiplash before symptoms even appear, beginning treatment early. But even beyond this first visit, you may need to be on the lookout for signs that whiplash occurred as it is not always detectable on early scans.
As soon as you notice the above symptoms, or any general pain or cognitive changes, you should seek care immediately. Most cases of whiplash end in a full recovery with proper treatment. But without this attention, symptoms can worsen and become chronic injuries that cause pain for extended periods of time.
