Now, doctors have found the pain is real and can be treated. Since a head-on car accident last year, Jaime McDonald has lived with whiplash. Finding help meant finding a doctor who believed her complaint.
Doctors relieve the pain with a treatment called radio frequency neural ablation.
Using electrical impulses, Dr. Schultz blocks feeling in the damaged nerves. The procedure is described as mildly painful. Jaime was sore for several days, but is now back to work and says she has never felt better. Dr. Shultz says treatment isn't permanent, because nerves can repair themselves over time. He says that the relief from the pain in most patients lasts over a year.