10 Best Ways of Whiplash Prevention

Whiplash prevention is far better than its treatment. The best way to prevent this injury is to know if you are a vehicle owner and if you drive yourself. Further, you may need good whiplash treatment.

Whiplash is an injury to the neck during the rare end collision of a car, most commonly. When a collision or accident the neck is extended, followed by flexion, which causes the neck structure.

Most commonly, the neck structures included are neck muscles rather in severe cases, it can include nerves, vessels, and even bone overlying.

This information will surely help to overcome for reducing the injury forms. They are being collected as conclusion tips from different research and articles.

1. Always wear your seat belt

Wearing a seatbelt correctly is the primary prevention of whiplash injury. Keep in mind that you should wear it on every ride. Wearing a seatbelt correctly puts you in a good position during a collision or accident. There is more prevention of its use.

2. Do not drive close to the steering wheel.

Sitting too close to the steering wheel is more likely to cause ribs fracture, bruises on the chest, while hitting your body with the steering wheel. There can be wrist and arm injuries and facial lacerations if the airbag opens too.

There will be less chance of injury in a rear-end collision if your head is close to the headrest. The more your head moves, the greater the injury you have due to the greater impact force on your

3. Lean towards the door of your car or the center of your car

By doing this, there is a chance of having lower back injuries, and keep in mind that the injury is less when you are sitting square, facing forward.

4. Drive with limited speed

While you are driving, always keep the speed limit. It is also one of the safe driving rules. High-speed driving has a high chance of accidents and a high chance of whiplash injury. Always drive slowly. No matter you will reach your destination safely with low speed also. So, don’t hurry to drive.

5. Never put your foot up on the dashboard

By doing so, there is a high risk of dislocating or breaking your hip. In the same way, even your knee can thrust into your face and badly hit you. Safe driving is important for all. While driving, be disciplined to avoid such accidents. Always follow the safe driving rules

6. Put a child car seat

Children are prone to being injured while driving in the car. Better put the child in the car seat. They will have an appropriate belt that is made for the child’s safety.

Putting the proper car seat makes prevention of injury to the child. There is more prone to getting neck injuries in a normal type of car seat. The child car seat provides more child safety as well.

7. Adjust Head Restraint

Always adjust the head restraint properly to protect from a whiplash injury.  The top of the restraint needs to be at the top of the ears. Too low a height of a higher head restraint increases the chances of injury.

The head restraint should be at least about 3 inches from the back of your head. When there is an uncertain collision, the head restraint will protect your head when seated and driving in the vehicle. And the active head restraint significantly reduced the spinal rotations as well [Source]

8. Driving too Close is dangerous

While driving, it is better to leave a safe distance between your car and the next vehicle ahead of you.

If it stops suddenly, you don’t want to slam the brakes urgently, which helps to lessen the whiplash injury. It is one of the  safety measures while driving, too

9. Be Fit while driving

Keeping fit is good for being healthy. Fit people are less likely to get injured. If you even get injured, then there is faster healing from such injuries.

10. Don’t Drink and Drive

Accidents are identified more with drinking and driving. It is not a safe driving rule. Driving while drinking alcohol is more prone to accidents. When you are driving with a drink, there is more uncontrolled movement of your vehicle, which results in more serious injuries. Severe whiplash injury symptoms are due to this type of injury. So Don’t Drink and Drive!

More about whiplash :

Common Whiplash Symptoms

• Stiff Neck causing difficulty in moving the head
• Mild, moderate, and severe neck pain (in some cases only)
• neck stiffness and difficulty moving your head.
• Headaches on and food

Whiplash Treatment

A doctor can treat whiplash symptoms with painkiller medicines. Depending on the intensity of pain and injury, you can use different medicines for it.

Sometimes you can also use stronger painkillers like codeine, opioids may be needed. Besides pain killers, some skeletal muscle relaxants, and anti-inflammatory medications. But you should keep in mind, use these medicines with the guidance of your respective doctors. Sometimes the medicine can have side effects as well.

When the whiplash symptoms are not improving through these medication therapies,,s then a combined approach can help recover the whiplash symptoms. The combined approach teamincludese

• Pain specialist
• a physiotherapist
• Psychiatric doctor for psychological support

It should be kept in mind that prevention is better than treatment, s, .ere also, Whiplash prevention is more important than its treatment. Explore more of it.

We can prevent Whiplash beforehand also. Although whiplash is due to rare end car accidents, it is hard to prevent as well. However, above 10 easy  whiplash prevention tips to protect yourself from the injury

Nowadays, due to lots of vehicles traveling, this injury has become common among minor to major problems during motor vehicle accidents. We are going to know how it can be reduced during your drive or while you are traveling in any vehicle.

Conclusion

• Whiplash injury is due to rare end accidents, most commonly in cars.
• Whiplash prevention is more important than whiplash treatment
• Adjusting head restraints, driving safely with a proper belt, not driving too close, and not drinking and driving are major things to keep in mind to prevent whiplash symptoms.

Author:

Dr. Saroj K. Suwal is an Orthopedic surgeon in Nepal. He has been writing different health-related blogs and posts