Biomechanical Trauma
Have you been involved in a Motor Vehicle Accident?
Do you have a Whiplash Injury or related symptoms?
Has your lawyer recommended an Independent Medical Examination?
If you answered yes to one of these questions, we can help you.
When a Cervical Acceleration/Deceleration (CAD) or Whiplash injury is produced, the
head is thrust in the direction of the impact. For example, when sitting at a traffic light
and a car is struck from the rear by another car, the heads of the occupants in the first
vehicle are thrust backwards towards the rear. As the head is thrown backwards,
inertia (remember Newton's Law that a body at rest tends to stay at rest until acted
upon by an outside force?) causes the lower jaw or mandible to remain where it was in space for about 250
milliseconds (about 1/4 of a second). This violent motion, causing the head to be thrown backwards also
causes anterior mandibular displacement as the mouth is forced open. Notice: just opposite as it might seem,
initially during a rear end whiplash injury, the rearward or posterior thrust of the head causes anterior instead of
posterior TMJ injury. This produces stretching and/or tearing of the ligaments and connective tissues in one or
both TMJs, bleeding, and often, displacement of the articular disc in the TMJ.
At the moment of impact from the rear, as the head is thrust backwards, the vehicle is actually accelerated
forward as the body of the occupant moves backward, thus forcing him or her into the seat. As the mouth is
thrown open, producing TMJ injury, the head either hits the headrest or extends over the headrest.
Then, as the vehicle comes to rest, the occupant is still moving forward until he or she is stopped either by a lap
belt and shoulder harness, or, the steering wheel or windshield. During this last movement, the head is thrust
forward while inertia causes the mandible to be thrust suddenly backward, traumatically closing the mouth
violently. This motion may fracture or chip teeth and further injure the posterior part of the TMJ.
Note: with the development of all the above injuries, no direct trauma to the head or jaw has yet occurred,
demonstrating that direct trauma is not necessaryfor a whiplash injury to severely damage the TMJs and teeth.
Whiplash Symptoms May Include:- Neck pain
- Neck stiffness
- Headaches
- Back pain
- TMJ symptoms
- Visual changes
- Difficulty swallowing
Any or all of these symptoms may be precedent to or direct signs of a temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD)
