Every year, around two million drivers experience permanent injuries from car accidents. However, injuries from car accidents aren’t always apparent right away. Sometimes, symptoms won’t appear until well after the fact.
This is especially common when it comes to head injuries. So if you’re experiencing a mysterious headache after a car accident, you’d better pay attention.
In this short guide, we’ll discuss what a car accident headache might mean and why you shouldn’t ignore it. To find out more, keep reading.
Table of Contents
Concussion Headache
If you seem to be suffering from a bad headache or migraine after a car accident, you may be dealing with a concussion.
Experiencing a concussion after a car accident is not uncommon. Concussions result from an injury directly to the brain, typically caused by a blow to the head or a sudden, violent jolt. Then the brain strikes the skull walls, causing bruising.
Besides migraine headaches, symptoms related to concussions include nausea, light, and sound sensitivity, dizziness, ringing in the ears, and confusion. Memory loss, slurred speech, and sleep problems are less common symptoms.
Whether you’re experiencing these other symptoms or not, you should visit your doctor as soon as possible if you think you may have a concussion from a car accident.
Whiplash Headache
Whiplash is one of the most common types of injuries experienced during a car accident. Whiplash headache results from neck muscles and ligaments being strained by sudden, forced movement of the head and neck.
When your head is jerked back and forth violently during an accident, the soft tissue around the base of your skull can be strained. This can cause neck pain, stiffness, dizziness, fatigue, visual disturbances, and memory and concentration problems.
A whiplash headache might not appear for days or weeks after a crash, but if it does appear, you’ll need to be examined by a car accident doctor.
Post-Traumatic Headache
A post-traumatic headache is a car accident headache caused by trauma to the head and neck. It might involve neck pain that seems to radiate to the head.
This kind of headache generally appears within hours or days after an accident. However, it can also be delayed. Headaches from car crashes can indicate brain damage, so you shouldn’t hesitate to contact your doctor.
Pinched Nerve Headache
A car accident injury can take many forms, including a pinched nerve in your neck or spine. Pinched nerves result from compression of the spinal nerves.
In a car accident, this compression may lead to a pinching of the nerve roots in the neck, or irritation of the nerve at the base of the skull. This can lead to tenderness, pain, burning, numbness, or tingling along the back of the head.
Visit Your Doctor if You Have a Headache After a Car Accident
By now, you should know what to do if you have a lingering headache after a car accident. If your headache won’t go away, it’s very important that you see your doctor.
For more timely news and helpful tips, continue reading our blog.
