If you were involved in a Car Accident, even if it was minor, failure to see a Chiropractic specialist could result in chronic conditions that take months or years to heal, costing you thousands of dollars in medical treatment.
Many people who are injured in a minor accident do not even think to see a chiropractor. However, chiropractic care after a car accident is the best solution for most people because it does not involve drugs or surgery.
Surgery and drugs are usually the go-to treatments for car accident injury victims, but a much better alternative is a chiropractic doctor who specializes in treating accident injuries.
Below is a list of The Benefits of Chiropractic Care After a Car Accident:
Broken bones, lacerations, or bruising will be easy injuries to spot after a car crash. However, there are other injuries such as Whiplash that are not always apparent immediately following a motor vehicle accident.
It could take hours or a few days to feel the symptoms of whiplash, such as dizziness, headaches, soreness, or pain in the upper back and neck.
The best way to deal with a whiplash injury is to catch it early on. This means, if you were involved in a car accident, do not wait to seek treatment until you feel pain.
When you are involved in a car accident, micro-tears in the ligaments and muscles are a common injury, and unfortunately, an X-ray is not going to catch them.
These tears in the muscles are the main reason people wake up after a car crash in severe pain wondering what is wrong because their X-rays looked normal.
A chiropractor will use spinal manipulations to realign the spinal cord helping your body to release an anti-inflammatory that helps reduce inflammation and pain symptoms in the body.
Waiting too long after a car accident to seek treatment may leave you with an increased risk for surgery. However, immediate chiropractic care is an excellent option to reduce the risk for surgery.
Most people do not want surgery, and it should be your very last resort, after you have tried everything else, like chiropractic care.
Scar tissue can develop in the muscles inside the body after a car accident injury occurs. This tissue will cause the victim to feel uncomfortable and stiff.
A chiropractic doctor can specifically target the damaged areas, breaking up the scar tissue faster than just letting it heal on its own.
This will ensure that the injured person feels better and heals properly at a much faster rate then if they avoid treatment altogether.
For many people involved in a car accident, they will just take pain relief drugs because they think that will make them better, and it probably does for a short period. However, drugs only mask the symptoms of injury; they don’t actually heal the damage itself.
Chiropractic care offers pain relief without the use of drugs or addictive medications. Chiropractic therapy also addresses the injury at the source of the problem, healing the actual injury and not just masking the pain.
Chiropractic adjustments after a car accident are known to reduce pain in the entire body because of a pain-reducing hormone that is released during the spinal manipulations.
These hormones help the injured area that was affected after the accident to feel less painful as well as helping to improve other areas of the body that may have been feeling pain before the crash.
Minor car accident injuries can become serious long-term problems if the conditions are left untreated.
For example, symptoms of whiplash can continue for years if you fail to seek proper chiropractic care and can become a chronic condition that leads to emotional anguish as well as physical.
Seeing a chiropractor immediately after your accident will help to avoid long-term, chronic pain conditions from developing. Your doctor will be able to diagnose and treat your injury before it has the chance to manifest into a much larger problem.
If you suffer a neck or back injury in a car wreck, the inflammation that occurs can cause pain but also reduce your ability to move naturally.
When you receive a chiropractic adjustment, it will mobilize your spine, restoring range of motion and allowing the body to begin the natural healing process at a much faster rate.
If you were injured in a car accident that was caused by another person’s negligence, seeing a chiropractor after your accident will improve your chance at receiving the compensation that you deserve.
When your accident injury is caused by someone else, it will be up to that person’s insurance company to pay for your medical treatment. Our office will provide you with the needed documentation, take medically necessary x-rays, refer for MRI when medically necessary and refer to other medical specialists when a second opinion or surgical consultation is necessary.
Do I need to see both a physical therapist and chiropractor?
Physical therapy and a chiropractor offer what may seem like the same service, but in reality they are different so you will more than likely need both physical therapy and to see a chiropractor. Usually, you will see a chiropractor to help you with your underlying injuries and pain and then afterwards go to physical therapy to help strengthen your muscles.
How long do I have to see a chiropractor after a car accident?
Ideally, you should make sure to visit a chiropractor as soon as possible after your accident. This will mean within 48-72 hours after your accident in most cases. If you are not able to get to one in this time period, it does not mean that the window is closed and you no longer have the option to see a chiropractor and you can still see one as you need to.
What to Expect from Chiropractic Treatment for a Car Accident
If you’ve never visited a chiropractor before, you may not be sure what to expect. Treatment begins with an injury assessment, which includes a range of motion testing, orthopedic/neurological testing, palpation, balance/vertigo/dizziness testing. Also x-rays may be taken and MRI’s may be referred for if medically necessary to thoroughly diagnose your injuries. With a thorough understanding of your health issues and their underlying causes, your chiropractor can recommend a customized treatment plan for your recovery.
Every patient’s plan is unique, but you can rest assured that chiropractic care is all-natural and non-invasive. Treatments include manual spinal manipulation and other conservative modalities, including adjustments, physical therapy modalities, nutritional/supplementation advice to speed healing and exercises to perform at home.The goal is to promote the body’s natural healing process without resorting to prescription drugs or surgery.
