Millions of drivers, this year, will experience complications associated from an automobile accident. For some, the accident will result in severe head and neck pain, resulting in a complication known as whiplash. As whiplash develops, other health complications, such as temporomandibular joint disease (TMJ) may also present as a complication.
Temporomandibular joint disease, TMJ, is a painful condition which carries the same symptoms as whiplash and, therefore, if these symptoms are persistent after an automobile accident, your healthcare professional should provide the appropriate treatment.
Symptoms of TMJ induced by whiplash may include headache, dizziness, deep ear pain, pressure behind the eyes, earaches and stiff neck. Unlike standard whiplash, your TMJ symptoms will appear as an inability to open the jaw fully, a clicking or snapping of the jaw and changes in alignment when the jaw is opened or closed.
Unfortunately, the effects of whiplash upon the development of temporomandibular joint disease may not be realized for several weeks or months. As a result, if your medical or bodily injury claim, under an auto insurance policy, is resolved too quickly, the auto insurance settlement may not provide for future medical expenses related to TMJ. For this reason, it is important to delay settling any auto insurance claims until your treatment and diagnosis can be fully established in the weeks and months after the accident.
If you’ve suffered from whiplash induced TMJ, there are a variety of treatment options available. Because there is no cure for TMJ, you can expect that there will be a lifetime of medical treatments required. Such treatments may include physical therapy, chiropractic care, and even biofeedback. At home, you will want to be well educated in the health benefits of yoga and myotherapy, using gentle massage to remedy the TMJ pain associated with whiplash.
In addition to automobile accidents, individuals who participate in sports may also be subject to trauma related to TMJ injury. Sports such as hockey and football often result in whiplash type conditions which may evolve into pain in the jaw, mandible or ears. Whatever your history for injury, either by auto accident or by sport, it is important to seek out the necessary treatment to control TMJ early in your injury treatment and, when dealing with financial settlements associated with injury to the neck, be certain to defer final settlement until the potential risk for development TMJ, months after injury, has been ruled out.
