Recent research has supported earlier work, in that the discs in your neck may be injured during slow speed automobile accidents.  It is still hard for some people to fathom that a 10 mile-per-hour 'fender-bender' can cause serious damage to your spine, but it can!

IStudies show that even if the discs are not initially injured in the accident, the resulting ligamentous injury and instability allows the discs to degenerate and become an active problem at a later date.  This has been general knowledge within clinical care circles for 30 years (Hohl, 1974), but the general public rarely hears about such data.

This current study on cervical disc injury with low speed collisions was published in Spine in 2004 (Punjabi, et al). Punjabi and his team found that injury occurred at specific spinal levels depending on the force of impact.

Ligamentous injury occurred first at the C4-C5 level when the force of impact was at 3.5 g.  When the force of the impact increase to 5 g. the shearing strain move to the C3-C4, C5-C6 and C6-C7 levels.

The shearing force into the discs first occurred at the C5-C6 level at 3.5 g. and spread to the C4-C5 and C6-C7 levels when the force increased to 5 g.  These findings are important because these are the same discal and ligamentous levels that patients first experience pain after an accident.  These are also the most common areas to show arthritic degeneration 5-10 years post-accident.

The authors of this study conclude that low speed collisions are responsible for tissue tearing (ligamentous and discal) and early degeneration of the spine if allowed to heal without any intervention.

These findings mirror other studies.   The biomechanical injuries that people sustain in low speed accidents are real and significant. Even if the initial pain goes away and the person thinks that he or she has healed, the degeneration progresses 'silently' until the pain begins again at a later date

The most important thing that someone can do after an accident is to be evaluated by an experienced Chiropractor. That doctor will evaluate the patient according to 'structure and function' parameters.  Hidden injury will be detected and recommendations for correction will be made.  Guess what?  Sometimes, after an accident, nothing is wrong!!!  It is always enjoyable to tell someone that they made it through this type of trauma with no physical harm, but they need to be evaluated to find that out.  Unfortunately, the great majority of people don't seek evaluation until many years after an accident and the joint breakdown has already occurred.  At that time, they will still improve with their injuries, but they may not recover to 100%.