Expert: Dr. Brendon J. O`Brien, D.C. - 2/7/2005

Question
I had pulled a muscle in my neck iat they gym, back in late November. It hurt so bad I could barely move it, and I had very limited range of motion.   I thought an adjustment might help. When my chiropractic adjusted my neck, it hurt extremely bad. I didn't understand why he would try and jerk it like that when it was a pulled muscle or inflamed.  He had said it was just very tight. I went back the next week, and he did the same thing and it really hurt. It made it worse!

Frustrated with "the wall he was hitting" he referred me to get an X Ray. Nothing was wrong. Here I am in February, and my neck has gone from being barely able to move it in December to a normal range of motion. However, it is still stiff, and fainly painful. Do you think he may have done something wrong to it, like given me whiplash from the jerky motion from the neck adj?

Answer
Hello Arnie,

    Chiropractic adjustments are in line with the direction of the joint and are low force with high velocity.  This means putting the joint back into its orginal/normal position with out injuring the joint.  If the joint is injured it may be inflamed and painful to adjust.  Also muscle when "torn" become extremely tight and can cause subluxations (pull the vertebrea/bones in your neck out of place).  Adjustments during the intial injury are sometimes painful.  "Whiplash" is highly unlikely but there are times not to adjust the joint too. It is hard to determine if the treatment made the condition worse.  You may want to have a exam by a different doctor of chiropractic to determine your condition, then see if the treatment would be the same as the previous doctor's.

Hope the information is useful,

Dr. Brendon O'Brien D.C.