Suggest Treatment For Tingling And Pain After A Head Injury

Posted on Tue, 7 Oct 2014

Question: I was playing soccer today with my friends. After playing for about an hour, I was hit by the soccer ball coming towards me from a very short range at a very high speed. I was hit smack on my mouth, and It happened so fast I didnt even realise what had happened. After getting hit I was down on the ground for a moment or two. The impact was hard and I was numb for 1-2 minutes not knowing who or what hit me. Friends said, deep breath and relax you would be fine. I stopped playing after that. My head feels heavy with mild numb tingling, my jaw is paining. I feel stressed and my eyes I feel are little bit burning. It may due to anxiety, as it is now around 5-6 hours since the incident, and my friends say they have all been hit likewise some or the other time and the feeling goes in a day or two. Is it just muscle pain or, may there any brain injury or concussion? Should I visit a doctor if it doesnt feel right in a day or two? The sensations are less now, just a mild pain around the head, and little eye burning and jaw pain.

Answered by Dr. Dr. Naveen Kumar Sharma (49 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
You may wait for 24 hours

Detailed Answer:
Hello,
Hitting with a football on face is a common injury and it happens once with every body. We can not call all such injury same as it depends on many factor. As you are saying that there was no history of loss of consciousness, vomiting or giddiness I would recommend you to take rest for 24 hours and wait.
For your Jaw I would suggest you to see if there is any pain in eating any food, or any abnormal clicking during mouth opening as some time a jaw joint subluxation can occur with such blow. If yes then you might need a CT scan of face also.
If there is no such symptoms ( loss of consciousness/ vomiting/giddiness/ difficulty in mouth opening) as I mentioned above you can wait, if any thing out of these happens you need to see a doctor.
For face, I would also suggest you to do ice application, which will help in decreasing swelling and numbness. It is better if you take liquid or semi solid diet.
I hope this answer will be useful for you. Let me know if there is any other followup question .
Thanks

Note: For further follow-up it is advisable to consult an emergency medicine specialist. Click here.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Shanthi.E