In this article, we will explain exactly what it means to experience a whiplash injury. For the most part, whiplash simply means a sprain or strain of the neck muscles. It’s important to understand how this injury works because the neck is a complicated series of joints and can easily be injured.

Generally speaking, whiplash most commonly causes injuries to the neck. Sometimes, the injury goes down to the thoracic (or mid-back), but mostly it only affects the neck area.

There are seven different levels or layers of bone in the cervical spine. Each level has nerves that extend out and away. Those nerves innervate to different areas of the body, such as your shoulders, arms, ribs and so forth as you make your way down the body. There are discs located between each layer of bone.

Next, we have a series of joints called facet joints. Facet joints essentially keep the neck from hyperextending and damaging the spinal cord. There are also ligaments across the facet joints and along the spinal processes.

Finally, we have different layers of muscles. There are some deep muscles, lesser-deep layered muscles and surface area muscles of the spine. When it comes to a whiplash injury, these muscles are often sprained or strained.

Keeping in mind the above information about the make-up of the neck, let’s go through a scenario that will help you better understand whiplash. Consider this scenario: you are sitting in your car at a red light and someone hits you from behind. This incident causes you to have whiplash. Now we will breakdown exactly what occurs during the action of this injury. In other words, we will explain precisely what happens to your neck when whiplash happens.

Initially, your car is going to move forward, but your body wants to stay in place (the laws of inertia). Your body goes backwards relative to your car. But remember, you have the seat behind. The seat catches up to you and flips you forward. It’s this whipping back and forward motion that causes the injury.

The seat pushes the lower area of the body back while the head is unsupported. The curvature in your neck creates pressure points up and down the spine, along the discs and the connective tissues. When you are flung forward (as the seat hits your back), it creates pressure points that are opposite of the first part of whiplash that you experienced when your body went backwards. This means that the pressure points are affected on the front and backsides of your neck.

Most commonly, you will have strained muscles, sprained ligaments and tendons. Sometimes you can have fractures within the neck, or you can do damage to the discs that we talked about earlier. However, most of the time, doctors are referring to the muscle strains in your neck when referring to whiplash.

If you were in a car accident where whiplash occurred, or if you suffered another type of injury due to a fall or an accident, contact us today at Dwyer Williams Cherkoss Accident Injury Attorneys for a free case evaluation. You can also reach us directly at: 1-800-285-8678. Our team of experienced personal injury attorneys will do everything possible to ensure that you receive the compensation that you deserve!