If you have ever been involved in a car accident, you might have experienced whiplash. This is when the head moves back and forth quickly, and strain is placed upon muscles in the neck. The main symptoms of whiplash are neck pain and stiffness. These things tend to correct themselves over time, but you can help alleviate neck pain by checking in with a chiropractor. Chiropractors are experts in neck pain, and one thing they can do is help to relax your neck muscles. Here are a few ways that a chiropractor can relax those neck muscles and ease your pain.

Ultrasound. One major reason to visit a chiropractor is that they'll have specialist equipment they can use that you just won't have access to, such as an ultrasound machine. When applied to the neck, the rippling sound waves from an ultrasound create gentle heat that penetrates the muscles, which makes them relax. If ultrasound is applied to your neck, you are likely to feel a tingling sensation as the waves travel through your body, but you won't experience any pain.

Massage. Your chiropractor may also decide to be more hands on and use massage therapy to relax the muscles in your neck. Massage will relieve muscular pain, and it will also encourage a flow of oxygen around your neck. The increased flow of oxygen helps to speed up the healing process so that your neck pain doesn't become anything long-term.

Deep breathing. Okay, you might not think that you need a chiropractor to tell you how to breathe, but breathing is such an ordinary thing that you might not even realise that you aren't breathing in a way that supports your whiplash recovery. The whole body is connected, and this means that your respiratory system is not disconnected from your muscular pain. Deep breathing means that less pressure is put on your upper body, and your chiropractor can teach you deep breathing exercises that will actually aid your whiplash recovery.

Electrotherapy. Your chiropractor may also have a machine that pulses small electrical currents through your neck muscles. Again, this is something that can ease relaxation in neck muscles, and it can also reduce inflammation. There is actually evidence of people using electric fish to heal pain in times past, so although electrotherapy sounds like a very contemporary technique, you should feel confident that many people before you have used electrical stimuli to deal with pain. For more information, contact a business such as Coogee Chiropractic.