Some patients report dizziness or vertigo after an auto collision. There are four leading causes of this problem after a wreck.
The most widespread cause of dizziness is simply because of neck damage - or what's called cervicogenic vertigo. Your spine contains thousands of nerves known as proprioceptors, and these nerves tell your brain the location of your body. Proprioceptors are how you can control your body in the dark or with your eyes closed, and are an important part of how your body maintains balance.
If your neck is injured, the proprioceptors can be disrupted, and this important data is no longer available to the postural control system of your brain, resulting in dizziness.
Cervicogenic dizziness usually resolves on its own with specific treatment of the damaged neck structures.
Another kind of dizziness is called benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, or BPPV. BPPV can be caused by violent movement of your head, as you could very well endure during a car crash. Your inner ear contains tiny calcium crystals called otoliths. As you move your head, these crystals move against nerve endings in your inner ear, informing your brain about the position of your head. During a violent movement of your head, these otoliths can literally be jarred from their normal position to other areas of your inner ear. There, they send signals to your brain that don't make sense, which causes confusion in your postural control system, and dizziness.
Patients with BPPV commonly report dizziness that appears when they position their head and neck in certain ways. Treatment of BPPV is done with a simple procedure called the Epley Maneuver, which positions your head to move the otoliths back to their normal position.
The third possible cause of dizziness after an auto collision is vascular damage. Occasionally, the blood vessels of the neck are injured, causing altered blood flow to the brain. This type of injury is often felt as a pain in the back of the head that becomes more intense over time, and it can be either on the side of the head or in the center. Sometimes the pain feels aching, and other times it might feel like a rise in pressure or a throbbing sensation.
This is an extremely serious type of injury and it's essential to seek medical attention quickly if you have these symptoms.
The fourth possible kind of vertigo is brain injury. If your head struck something during the crash or if the collision was severe, you can suffer a mild traumatic brain injury. If you experienced a brain injury, you might suffer with fuzzy thinking, confusion, dizziness, or memory loss after the crash. It's critical that you seek medical attention if you currently have these symptoms.
Chiropractic is a tried and tested, successful way to help men and women with dizziness, and we've been helping these types of injuries in Oakleigh, VIC since 1987.
If you've been in a motor vehicle accident and have signs of back pain, Dr. Liveriadis is here to help. We can help establish the root cause of your problem and develop a treatment plan to help you reclaim your health. We have helped many people in Oakleigh, VIC improve from these sorts of injuries.
Call our office today at (03) 9579 2699 for an appointment or for more information.
Since 1987, North Road Chiropractic patients have benefited from the hands-on, low-force, safe and painless chiropractic techniques offered. Utilizing the best and latest in diagnostic techniques, state of the art equipment, setting us apart amongst Oakleigh chiropractors.
