Car accident dizziness is a common side effect of vehicular collisions. If the dizziness affects your day-to-day life, know that you can contact one of our Eason & Tambornini brain injury attorneys for a free consultation. Our brain injury attorneys will explain to you what car accident dizziness is, why you have car accident vertigo, how you can get vertigo from a car accident, why you have post-car accident dizziness, and how long this dizziness typically lasts after a concussion. If you have any concerns about vertigo and dizziness, please call one of our brain injury lawyers.
Why do I feel dizzy after a car accident?
Dizziness is one of the symptoms that typically accompany whiplash after a car accident. Dizziness is the feeling of lightheadedness caused by sudden head movements and the sensation of slowly moving even though you’re motionless.
What happens in a whiplash injury is that your brain suddenly accelerates and decelerates inside the skull in response to an external force like a car collisions. The sudden flexion and extension of the neck cause the soft structures to stretch abnormally, resulting in tiny tears in the muscle fibers and tendons and painful neck movements.
But whiplash doesn’t affect just the soft structures of the neck, though. It can also affect the neural pathways responsible for balance perception, spatial awareness, coordination, and proprioception. If these are affected, there could be a disruption of the signals from the vestibular system to the part of the brain responsible for balance, spatial awareness, and coordination.
What is vertigo, and can you get vertigo from a car accident?
Vertigo from a car accident is also very common. You feel lightheaded when you suddenly move your head, or you always feel like the room is spinning around you even though you’re not moving. You feel unbalanced, like you’re tilting to one side or pulled in one direction.
Vertigo could signify that there is a damaged nerve in your neck region. A nerve injury could disrupt the balance and coordination signals from your brain.
Vertigo could also indicate cerebellum and brainstem affectation from the whiplash injury. These areas of the brain are responsible for coordinating and regulating posture and balance in movements, as well as integrating and sorting sensory information. Located at the base of the skull, this region of the brain is often affected by whiplash injuries.
Why do I get post-car accident dizziness?
The dizziness usually goes away in time, but if it persists, it could indicate a more severe injury. Some of the reasons for post-car accident dizziness are damage to proprioceptors, benign paroxysmal vertigo, blood vessel damage, and brain injury.
Proprioceptors are the nerves responsible for the perception of position and movement. Any damage to these nerves can result in disruption of signal transmission.
Benign paroxysmal vertigo is damage to the inner ear otoliths. These tiny calcium crystals move against the inner ear nerve endings during movement and tell the brain what your head position is. During trauma, these otoliths can be jarred out of their usual locations and affect their function.
Blood vessel damage could result in inadequate blood supply to the brain and affect its normal functioning. Lastly, brain injury can also cause post-car accident dizziness, significantly if the cerebellum and brainstem are affected.
How long does the dizziness last after a concussion?
Dizziness after a concussion typically lasts for a few days and resolves independently. However, it’s not unusual for complete recovery from dizziness, concussion, and other symptoms to take place months after the initial trauma.
Treatment for dizziness includes rest, anti-nausea medications, and pain pills for headaches and migraines. If these do not improve your symptoms, you can visit your doctor or a chiropractor for further assessment and additional therapy like vestibular and spatial awareness training, cervical decompression, or neuromuscular re-education training therapy.
These can be expensive, especially if your insurance company won’t cover them. You may need these additional therapies, though, if the dizziness is starting to affect your personal, social, and professional life.
What can you do?
If you were involved in a car accident and are suffering from persistent dizziness that needs more than just conventional treatment methods, please get in touch with one of our Eason & Tambornini brain injury attorneys. We’ll help you understand how dizziness and vertigo can occur after a car accident, why you may suffer from post-car accident dizziness, how prolonged dizziness after a car accident usually lasts, and standard treatment options. Our doors are always open, and a auto accident lawyer in Sacramento is ready to help you should you suffer from car accident dizziness, especially if the car collision wasn’t your fault.
