Whiplash is an injury to the neck area where there is a quick acceleration and deceleration that has occurred.

The recommended treatment for whiplash is to continue doing your normal activities and not limit these activities as it could delay recovery.

If needed an Osteopath or other health professional can discuss modifications of your daily activities and provide suggestions of ways to remain active after your injury.

Pain is a normal response to injury and so it’s ok to feel pain. Depending on the injury, you may start to notice improvements in function and a decrease in pain within a few days or weeks, others may take longer up to several months.

You may find it helpful to visit your GP to discuss medications or other strategies for pain management.

As part of remaining active, neck exercises may be recommended to help increase the amount of movement of your neck and strengthen areas around the neck. 

An Osteopath can offer manual therapy to address some musculoskeletal components of your injury such as soft tissue techniques to help loosen muscles, articulation or mobilisation techniques to help any restricted joint and myofascial release to release fascia. These techniques will be used to improve your function and healing and will be used in conjunction with the suggestions above.

If you experience symptoms such as numbness in your extremities, you are unable to turn your head more than 45 degrees to each side, have been in a large forceful accident or are older than 65 you may need to see a GP to rule out a fracture or dislocation.

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Dr Mariella Berry (Osteopath)

BSC (Osteopathy), MHSc (Osteopathy)