The treatment of whiplash complaints strongly depends on the duration of the complaints and factors that may hinder recovery. If the complaints after a whiplash are present for more than 3 months, this requires a different treatment plan. Or if you are unsure or anxious about how to strain the neck, it can negatively affect recovery. Other factors can also play a role in the failure or slower recovery from whiplash.
In the acute (early) phase, the focus is on reducing pain and improving mobility. In this phase you will receive advice about what exactly whiplash does to the neck and how you can best deal with the pain. We promote mobility by working together with the fysiotherapist to perform specific mobilizations (movement techniques) and exercises that you get to take home. When the pain has subsided, we gradually switch to exercises aimed at regaining the strength and stability of the neck. If you have the neck pain under control again, you can also slowly start sports activities again, provided they do not aggravate the pain.
Chronic Neck Pain After Whiplash
When there is long-term pain complaints, there may be a disturbed pain system and / or pain behavior. Just as the digestive system can be disturbed - think of stomachache or vomiting - the pain system can also be disturbed. In this case, this means that the nerves can become hypersensitive and stimuli that usually do not or hardly hurt will now start to hurt. Expectations, experiences and the interpretation of physical stimuli also influence how you experience the pain. Increased irritability can be very annoying and also lead to being irritated more quickly or becoming hypersensitive to light and/or sound. Fysioplein can help you to 'retrain' the pain system by responding to the aforementioned factors during treatment and gradually increasing the load in active exercise therapy.