You’ve survived your car accident, now you just need to learn more about ligament injury from car accidents so you can ensure you receive the proper treatment and protect your body from long term health problems. Ligament injuries or strains are not the easiest to diagnose and when left untreated can lead to serious medical issues in the future.
This survivor’s guide will help you understand what ligament injuries are, why they are so difficult to diagnose, and how you can work with your medical providers to achieve the proper care needed to protect your body from future medical complications. This isn’t a complicated subject to understand, but there is some basic information you need to know to help your body recover from possible ligament injury from car accidents.
What is a ligament injury?
Your ligaments are the support system for your bones, they are a fibrous tissue that holds the bones together. Most people who suffer from ligament injury from car accidents experience problems with one specific ligament called the anterior longitudinal ligament (ALL). This is the ligament that goes down the front side of your neck and its job is to support the spine. You can think of this ligament as a support wall backing up your neck so you can balance the weight of your head. This ligament can become torn or strained due to extreme force such as a whiplash.
There has been quite a bit of research into damage to the anterior longitudinal ligament and a few things have been proven in recent years:
1. It can be incredibly difficult to diagnose this type of ligament injury from car accidents. Regular x-rays will not pick up on most strains and tears to this ligament.
2. Injury to the anterior longitudinal ligament happens along with whiplash because of the forceful, unnatural movement of the spine at the point of impact. This movement places strain on the ligament and can lead to tears or lesions that cause long term complications.
3. The ligaments running along the spine have pain receptors, which explains why so many people suffering from ligament injury from car accidents experience pain in the neck and sometimes shoulders. Those pain receptors pass the pain to surrounding areas of the spine.
So, in summary, the ligament running along the front of your neck has pain receptors and when it is strained and moved in an unnatural manner through the force of a car accident, those receptors can shoot pain throughout your spine. If the ligament remains functional and is just injured, it may not show up on an x-ray and can be more difficult to diagnose.
A look into the future
In some cases, strain and injury to the anterior longitudinal ligament can lead to degeneration of spinal vertebrae and/or the discs running between the vertebrae. This can occur years after the accident due to weakening of that spinal support wall. Even if pain stops at some point after the accident, researchers are finding the strain placed on the anterior longitudinal ligament can still have negative consequences for the spine in the future.
This is why it is so important to accurately diagnose any type of ligament injury from car accidents. An experienced physical therapist or another medical professional well versed in whiplash and all of its complications will be able to effectively screen for any form of damage to neck ligaments surrounding the spine.
It is important to have this diagnosed whether or not you are concerned about possible damage to your ligaments. If you are experiencing pain after a car accident and are unable to find the source of the pain through standard testing in the emergency room after the accident, see a physical therapist with experience in car accident injuries and ask for a thorough diagnosis of all potential problems in your neck and spine.
Receiving the proper diagnosis and care for ligament damage and/or strain, could save you some pain and reduce the effect of long term problems in the future!
Ligament damage & low speed collisions
It is common to assume that an accident occurring at low speeds won’t produce serious injuries to the people involved in the accident. This idea seems to make logical sense, but it has been proven untrue through multiple scientific studies. It turns out an accident with vehicles traveling less than 10 mph can still lead to substantial injury to ligaments in the neck.
This means you don’t have to be traveling very fast to sustain injury to your anterior longitudinal ligament. Further, you can sustain this injury even when your vehicle barely has a scratch on it. Even low speed accidents and accidents with minimal vehicle damage can do damage to the ligaments surrounding the spine. It is possible to suffer whiplash from these low velocity car accidents, so don’t take it lightly. Insist on medical imaging and a medical examination by a skilled medical professional just to make sure no damage has occurred.
This is important to understand because so many people put themselves in danger by shunning medical treatment because they feel the accident wasn’t that bad. They look at their car with minimal or no damage or think about the low speed involved and assume that they will be just fine. Even if they feel some minor pain or tension in their neck they may blow it off because they don’t take the accident seriously. As well your insurance company may declare your accident to be low impact and along with that may insinuate that you couldn’t possibly have been hurt. Just because you feel fine does not mean that you are fine and it is a good idea to have medical tests conducted and a medical diagnosis made. Especially before making a statement to your insurance company regarding your injuries from the accident.
If it turns out no damage was sustained you will have a sense of relief and security. If it turns out you do have ligament injury from your car accident, you can receive proper care to help manage the pain and possibly prevent some future complications.
This article is considered general information only; please consult a medical professional concerning your specific condition.
Related posts:
- Visual Symptoms From Whiplash
- Dizziness or Vertigo After a Car Accident: Could Whiplash be the Culprit?
- Is It Chronic Pain or Traumatic Brain Injury? Post-Accident Screening & Care is Crucial
- Lower Back Pain After a Car Accident: It Could be Related to Whiplash
- The “Pain in the Neck” Factor of Whiplash