Stiff Neck and Headaches? How an Interventional Pain Specialist Treats Whiplash Injuries

If your whiplash injury is still causing you pain, you can get support for your neck. An interventional pain specialist might recommend healing-supporting options like laser therapy, nerve blocks, physical therapy, or acupuncture.

Whiplash is never a welcome scenario. Even turning your head to look at something might be painful, and you might battle regular headaches. Fortunately for some people, whiplash often heals relatively quickly (sometimes even in a matter of days).

If you’re still dealing with that neck pain long after the incident that gave you whiplash, you’re probably wondering about your treatment options. Come see Shyam Purswani, MD, at South Texas Pain Institute. He specializes in treating neck pain and car accident injuries. That means he’s an expert in addressing whiplash.

Dr. Purswani has a variety of different treatment options he can explore with you.

Applying an interventional pain approach for whiplash

Interventional pain management focuses on interrupting the pain signals before they can reach your brain. That could mean pain medication, but Dr. Purswani goes beyond just masking your pain. Instead, he works to target its root cause so you can get lasting relief.

With whiplash, that root cause is a sprain in your neck. You might have strained your muscles or ligaments. In some cases, the vertebrae in your neck might even be impacted.

Dr. Purswani evaluates your neck to find out what’s affecting you. This allows him to personalize a treatment plan that doesn’t just minimize your pain, but also supports healing in your neck.

Treatment options for whiplash

Dr. Purswani has a wide range of resources he can use to help your neck. Those include:

MLS laser therapy

The Multiwave Locked System (MLS®) robotic laser can help to accelerate healing in the tissues of your neck.

During this noninvasive treatment, Dr. Purswani sends the laser energy through your skin into the deeper layers of tissue in your neck. Studies have shown that this treatment can improve the range of motion and reduce pain in people with neck injuries.

Physical therapy

Going through specific exercises can help to strengthen the soft tissues in your neck. The added support can alleviate whiplash pain. It can also help to restore your range of motion.

Nerve blocks

On the interventional pain side, Dr. Purswani can use these injections to block pain signals from your nerves before they reach your brain.

Acupuncture

Acupuncture uses tiny needles (as thin as a strand of human hair) to stimulate your nervous system. That can help to activate your body’s natural painkillers while increasing circulation in the area, which supports healing.

A recent meta-analysis found that “acupuncture may have clinical value in pain reduction and increasing the ROM [range of motion] for patients with WAD [whiplash-associated disorder].”

These are just a few of the treatment options Dr. Purswani offers for whiplash. If you’re ready to live life without that stiff neck and headaches, request an appointment online or call us at (210) 899-7246.