Whiplash Treatment in Burnaby & Surrey: What is a Whiplash Injury?

Written by Isaac Daeyoung Lee, Doctor of Chirorpactic | Updated August 2026

Whiplash injury commonly refers to different injuries on the neck after a quick and sudden movement from hyperflexion to hyperextension or vice versa. This usually happens when the neck is moved in a fast movement compared to the body forwards or backwards. Whiplash injury is very common in motor vehicle accidents, sports injuries, work injuries, or violent shaking of the body or neck.

Whiplash treatment in Burnaby & Surrey. Hyperflexion and hyperextension explanation at Healing Sense Clinic

Whiplash Injury: What are the symptoms?

Whiplash injury usually involves more than one structure damage and it is important to know what symptoms are common with the damage involved. When you experience these symptoms especially after any trauma to your neck, you must pay attention to these whiplash symptoms to seek proper treatment and prevent further complications.

whiplash injury: neck cervical spine showing ligaments and tendons, and muscles around cervical spine.

Bone Fracture: The primary structure that can be damaged during whiplash injury. When the cervical fracture happens, usually it happens with ‘crack’ or ‘snap’ sound and intense local pain starts immediately. Some can even feel bulge and swelling around the area and most of the cases certain movement will cause intense pain. This can be medical emergency since the fracture on the neck can cause nerve damage which can lead to paralysis.
Soft tissue (ligaments and tendons): Another structure that can be damaged is soft tissues such as ligaments and tendons around the cervical spine. Whiplash injury usually cause hyperextension and hyperflexion of the neck where the ligaments and tendons are overstretched during the process and can cause tear or sprains. This can cause moderate to severe pain but it feels more like dull achy type and certain movements can cause this pain worse.
Disc Damage: Whiplash injury can involve disc damage and disc herniation. When disc bulge or protrusion happens, it can cause a moderate achy type of local pain when the bulge or protrusion does not compress any nerves. However, when disc bulge compresses the nerve, you can feel radiation to the affected shoulder, upper arm, forearm, hand, or fingers depending on which level of cervical nerve is getting compressed. Coughing, bearing down, or certain movements can increase the local pain and radiation.
Nerve involvement or damage: Whiplash injury may involve nerves around the neck by cervical spine fracture, disc bulge, or inflammation of soft tissues. The nerve symptoms will be different depending on which cervical nerve is getting compressed but most common symptoms are headache, eye pain, dizziness, nauseousness, upper shoulder radiation, arm radiation, finger radiation, or some sensation changes.

When Should You See Professionals for Whiplash Injury?

Whiplash injuries can cause serious problems if neglected and even without much symptoms, you should seek professionals as soon as possible. In BC Canada, if you get whiplash injury from motor vehicle accidents, ICBC can provide different therapies without your out of pocket fee.

Absolute Whiplash Indications to see Professionals:

Local swelling with intense sharp pain on the neck.
Unable to move neck due to pain
Radiation to arms and hands/fingers
Weakness on arms or neck, Decreased grip strength
Headache and nauseousness
Slurred speech
Emotional fluctuations such as irritation, anger, or depression that are unusual

Recommended Whiplash Indications to see Professionals:

Mild to moderate neck pain without any radiation or headache
Neck pain but without swelling or restraiction of movements
Headache and nauseousness that quickly disappear in a few days

Even with mild symptoms, we would recommend to check with professionals in order to prevent mild whiplash conditions develop into more serious conditions.

Comprehensive Whiplash Recovery in Burnaby and Surrey

Why Choose Our Healing Sense Clinic therapists for Whiplash?

Healing Sense Clinic will provide a full care from the diagnosis to treatment in one stop at the clinic. If you come to Healing Sense Clinic with whiplash injury, the following steps will be provided.

Our chiropractor gets information about your condition of whiplash injury and X-rays will be taken on the spot if needed especially to rule out any fractures. Most of the whiplash injuries require X-rays in the beginning due to the fragile nature of the neck cervical spine structure.
After diagnosis, Healing Sense Chiropractor will start chiropractic treatment and refer to other types of treatment under one roof depending on patient’s whiplash condition. Healing Sense Clinic provides Physiotherapy, Registered Massage Therapy, Acupuncture, and Kinesiology Active Rehabilitation to help our patients with whiplash injuries.
If you have ICBC claim number due to a car accident case, you are automatically participating in ICBC enhanced care program and you are able to get all these treatments without paying anything out of your pocket.
- Chiropractic 25 Sessions
- Physiotherapy 25 sessions
- Acupuncture 12 sessions
- RMT 12 sessions
- Kinesiology Active Rehab 12 sessions
If you have extended health insurances from your work or personal insurances, most of your treatment will be covered. For example, Canada Life, SunLife, Manu Life, BlueCross, Dejardins, Greenshield, and most of major insurances are available to cover Whiplash condition with direct billing at Healing Sense Clinic.