Whiplash Treatment With Upper Cervical Care in Mount Dora, FL

Comprehensive Consultation and Exam

The doctor and team will first do a consultation and preliminary evaluation (complimentary) to ensure you’re in the right place, and we can help you. If so, we’ll do a much deeper dive into your condition and how it’s affecting your life. Once we understand you clearly, we’ll thoroughly examine your spine and nervous system utilizing chiropractic, functional, and neurologic testing to find the root cause of the problem(s).

CBCT (3D Panoramic X-ray) and Motion Study X-rays

Once we’ve determined that you are a good candidate for care and we can help you, we will likely need to take very specific forms of imaging to pinpoint the problem (unless you are pregnant). We want to get a good look at the curves of the spine, the alignment (or lack thereof), any degenerative changes, contraindications to care, and ultimately find out EXACTLY what we need to do for you to get better.

*Depending on the findings, we may need to refer out for an MRI to get conclusive answers and the severity of the damage.

Specific Upper Cervical Chiropractic Care

At our family-oriented practice in Mount Dora, we provide a specific and unique form of chiropractic care that is very precise, extremely effective, and incredibly gentle. In fact, there is no twisting or “cracking” of your spine. Utilizing a form of care known as Blair Upper Cervical, which focuses on the top two bones in the neck, where your head and neck come together, tends to yield uncommon results due to the neurological influence of this critical area of your spine. We add a supportive type of adjusting for the rest of your spine known as TRT (Torque Release Technique). This is also an exact, effective, yet gentle instrument-based technique that produces fantastic results.

When the joints of your spine are misaligned, it puts pressure on the joints and, more importantly, on your nervous system—known as a subluxation—which may cause pain and affect your global spinal alignment and health. Your specific adjustments aim to reduce the subluxations, taking pressure off your spinal joints, nervous system, and vasculature, reducing nerve tension, and improving blood and CSF flow so your body can self-heal the way it was created.

Custom Therapeutic Exercise Plan

Depending on your particular case, we will design a custom rehab/exercise plan to help you recover quicker and, most importantly, attain lasting results. Your unique exercise plan aims to help restore global spinal imbalances, address muscle weakness, increase range of motion, and improve your posture. We also aim to keep it simple—so you can do it at home quickly. If you are a severe case, we may refer you for physical therapy aimed at a more tailored and monitored exercise rehab to complement your upper cervical chiropractic care.

SoftWave TRT (Tissue Regenerative Technologies)

Shockwave Therapy, or Extracorporeal Shockwave Therapy (EWST), is a non-invasive treatment that involves the delivery of shock waves to an injured area to promote healing. This treatment produces highly effective shock waves that initiate biological regeneration processes at the cellular level.

Treatment involves technology that applies short, frequent, and high-intensity bursts of mechanical energy (in the form of a shockwave) into soft tissue that is injured, scarred, or contains adhesions, is painful, or inflamed.

SoftWave triggers a cellular response upon delivery that activates the body’s natural healing process. Patients experience the transformative benefits, including:

• Increased blood supply (promotes healing)
• Promotion of angiogenesis (new blood vessels)
• Modulation of inflammation (pain reduction)
• Activation of resident stem cells (generates new tissue)
• Restoration of tissue elasticity (healthier tissues)
• Endogenous growth factor activation (improved wound healing)

Upper Cervical Chiropractic

Mount Dora Family Chiropractic’s specialty, focuses on the upper spinal region where the head and neck join. It is well known that any history of trauma (even if mild or years ago) can cause a misalignment in the upper neck. This region of the spine houses and protects part of the most critical region of your nervous system—the brainstem. All postural control emanates from this region. Thus, a misalignment of the top two bones in the neck (known as the atlas (C1) and axis (C2) vertebrae) can and will cause postural distortion, predisposing the spine and discs to injury. This postural distortion will usually be seen as:

• One leg shorter than the other (pulled short due to abnormal neurological
  Firing of the muscles)
• A pelvic tilt
• Unlevel shoulders
• Head tilt

Doctors of Upper Cervical Chiropractic understand that misalignments or subluxations in this part of the spine are often at the root of pain, whether the injury and misalignment are in the neck or the low back. Furthermore, subluxations left undetected and uncorrected may prevent full recovery and cause chronic health conditions in the long term.

Of course, this doesn’t mean we ignore the other parts of the spine, as there may be other damage or misalignments that must be addressed. Upper Cervical Chiropractic doctors simply acknowledge that without properly addressing this area, care in other areas of the spine will be far less effective and short-lived since the entire spine will continue to compensate due to the upper cervical misalignment that has not been properly assessed and corrected.

Upper Cervical Chiropractic care aims to realign the upper cervical vertebrae to restore proper nerve function and promote overall health. This form of care, along with lifestyle modifications and support, can significantly improve the healing, relief, and long-term stability of those suffering from disc injuries and acute or chronic pain from whiplash.

Whiplash injuries can range from mild to very severe. Injuries tend to be more significant when your headrest is positioned too low. If the impact was severe or the headrest was low, broken bones and tissue damage are possible. We highly recommend seeing an upper cervical chiropractor and receiving a thorough examination and specialized X-ray series. Even if the impact seemed mild, you may have whiplash if you are experiencing any of the following symptoms:

• Neck pain
• Shoulder, upper back, and arm pain
• Headaches
• Blurred vision
• Pain when turning the head
• Inability to move or turn the head fully
• Dizziness
• Fatigue
• Numbness or tingling in the arms, hands, and fingers
• Ringing in the ears
• Difficulty sleeping
• Depression
• Change in menstrual cycle

As you can see there are a wide range of symptoms and not all of them may be immediately traceable to whiplash. Even if a doctor has cleared you, your pain could still be related to whiplash, and you may need treatment to correct the problem and prevent long-term chronic pain and symptoms. Getting your spine checked as soon as possible after a whiplash injury is critical. The sooner you start treating the issue, the less chance you have of it developing into a long-term or permanent problem.