If you have never been in a car accident before, you might not know what to expect physically or mentally. A car accident can leave you feeling sore, stiff, and in pain, whether or not you suffered a serious injury. Even if you don’t end up with a cast or needing surgery, that doesn’t mean you should have to suffer until the pain goes away. Car accident chiropractic offers comprehensive care to help you deal with pain and other symptoms after you’ve been in a wreck. Millions of car accidents happen every year, and car accident chiropractors have extensive knowledge and training in the ways this can impact you from head to toe. You might be looking for alternatives to prescription pain medications or more natural treatment options as you recover from an injury. Chiropractic care for car accident injuries offers a drug-free and non-invasive approach to after-accident care that will help you fully recover and rehabilitate so you can get back to your regular routines and activities you love.
5 Car Accident Chiropractic Benefits
While you might associate chiropractors with treatment for back and neck pain, chiropractic care offers so much more than that! In fact, chiropractors who specialize in car accident injuries treat a wide range of injuries and issues that impact the musculoskeletal system. Your chiropractor won’t just work with your spine and joints; they will also address issues that impact your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and other soft tissues. A car accident can really shake up your whole body with the force of impact and affect you in ways you never considered. Here are five benefits of chiropractic care after a car accident.
Drug-Free Pain Relief
Many people are looking for treatment options that avoid powerful prescription pain medications like opioids that have strong side effects and addictive qualities. Chiropractic care offers an alternate option for pain management and relief through a hands-on approach to treatment and care. Instead of messing with drugs and chemicals, chiropractors rely on manual therapies that promote your body’s natural healing processes. Chiropractors manipulate your spine, joints, and soft tissues to restore them to their natural settings and improve healthy functioning. You might be surprised to experience how chiropractic care can offer drug-free pain relief for your car accident injuries. However, therapeutic techniques that engage your body’s natural healing abilities offer longer-lasting relief than medications that merely mask your pain and other symptoms.
Non-Invasive Treatment
Chiropractic care is a non-invasive treatment approach that takes a holistic perspective on your health and healing. Unlike injections or surgery for pain management after a car accident, chiropractors use hands-on chiropractic adjustments and soft tissue mobilization to treat various car accident injuries. From neck pain to a knee injury, your chiropractor can help you with hands-on techniques that do not rely on any medications, injections, or any tools that break your skin or physically enter your body. Your chiropractor may request X-rays or CT scans for a better look at your injuries to help inform the treatment plan, but these diagnostic imaging tools expose you to only the smallest amounts of radiation to keep you safe. Visit a chiropractor after a car accident for non-invasive treatment that can also help lower your need for pain relievers or more invasive treatments like surgery.
Targets Source of Pain
When you visit a chiropractor, they will identify the source of your pain and incorporate treatment techniques to address more than just your symptoms. When you take pain medications, they merely mask your symptoms for a short period of time. However, a chiropractor will target the source of your pain so you can experience lasting relief. Chiropractic care for car accident injuries may involve using diagnostic imaging tools to locate the source of your pain and offer your chiropractor highly detailed images of the injury or issue. Then your chiropractor can develop a personalized treatment plan that addresses your specific injuries and symptoms by resolving the core injury. Pain and other symptoms typically signal a bigger issue going on inside the body caused by a car accident. The jolting and jostling upon impact can put a lot of stress and strain on your body, and your chiropractor will locate the source of your pain and treat it.
Eases Injury Symptoms
Along with managing and relieving your pain, chiropractors also help ease other symptoms associated with car accident injuries. After a car accident, an injury might leave you with reduced or restricted mobility, like a broken bone or dislocated joint. When your range of motion gets reduced by an injury, your surrounding muscles and soft tissues can tense up and become stiff and sore. Your chiropractor can utilize various techniques to help address these symptoms as well. Chiropractic adjustments will help restore range of motion in injured or damaged joints, while therapeutic massage can help reduce tense, stiff muscles.
Improves Healthy Functioning
Chiropractors are experts on how your spine and nervous system impact healthy functioning in the rest of your body. It is quite common for your head, neck, and upper body to get shaken up during a car accident. This can significantly impact your spine and surrounding nerves, which can cause symptoms and other issues in your extremities. For example, an injury to your neck from a car accident can disrupt communication from your brain to your arms, leading to pain, tingling, and numbness in the area. Your spine and nerves support your entire body, so any issue or disruption to their healthy functioning can impact many different areas and functions. Chiropractors resolve misalignments in the spine with therapeutic adjustments that safely and effectively realign your vertebrae and joints. Reducing pressure on nearby nerves can help restore healthy communication and functioning for your whole nervous system.
Common Car Accident Injuries
Every person’s experience with a car accident chiropractor will be different because no injury affects two people the exact same way. That is why chiropractors offer personalized attention and care for your injuries and only use treatments and techniques that target your specific issues and symptoms. Here are some examples of common car accident injuries and how a chiropractor can help.
Whiplash
Whiplash is actually the most common of all car accident injuries! Whether you got rear-ended by another vehicle or ended up in a multi-car collision, the force of impact can cause your head to snap violently forward and backward, leading to a whiplash injury. Whiplash occurs when your neck muscles stretch and strain out of their regular range of motion. A whiplash injury can also impact the healthy functioning of your cervical spine because of how the pressure impacts your head and neck. You may not even realize you have a whiplash injury right away, though a car accident chiropractor can help diagnose your injuries. Some car accident injuries like whiplash can have delayed symptoms that appear hours or even days later. As the pain starts to set in, you might also notice stiffness and soreness in your neck, along with a reduced range of motion. Turning your head from side to side or up and down might become painful and uncomfortable. A chiropractor can help address any misalignments in your neck caused by a whiplash injury and help improve your range of motion in your neck with gentle, therapeutic techniques.
Back Pain
Back pain is common after a car accident because of how much pressure and strain the collision can put on your upper body. Muscle sprains and strains in your back can occur from the stress and strain of a car accident, causing pain and discomfort. You might notice increased back pain when you move in certain directions, like trying to twist or bend down. The sudden force of impact from a car wreck can lead to misalignments of the vertebrae and spinal discs in your spine. When a vertebra is even slightly out of place, it can disrupt healthy functioning and lead to a wide range of symptoms, including pain. Chiropractors are well known and regarded for treating back pain from various sources, including car accident injuries.
Joint Pain
Joint pain is also common if you’ve been in a car accident. You might hit your elbow on the window or experience pain and bruising around your shoulder where the seat belt pressed against you. The pressure and stress on your joints can cause pain and lead to restricted movements and range of motion. A car accident chiropractor can help you recover from joint pain after a car accident with a combination of joint adjustments, soft tissue mobilization, and therapeutic massage. In many cases, the muscles and other tissues that support your joint require some additional attention and treatment to help your joints function properly.
Herniated Disc
A herniated disc refers to an injury that affects the spinal discs that separate vertebrae in your spine. These spinal discs are made up of spongy insides with a tough outer shell that can become ruptured or torn, especially due to a serious impact from a car accident. You can also suffer a herniated disc along with an injury like whiplash. Herniated discs commonly occur in the neck and lower back, and a chiropractor is here to help. Chiropractic care for herniated discs will involve addressing the misalignment in your spine where the herniation occurred. The herniated disc may press on nearby nerves and cause uncomfortable symptoms like pain, tingling, and numbness extending into other body parts. Restoring the spinal disc to its proper positioning helps the aggravated nerve function properly again.
Fracture
Unfortunately, broken bones can happen because of a car accident. Broken bones are known as fractures and can occur in several different ways. People are often familiar with a broken bone that requires a cast, but a broken bone can also occur in less obvious ways. For example, a hairline fracture is a type of broken bone where a crack forms in the bone and can still cause great pain and discomfort. Your symptoms and treatment options will depend on the location and type of fracture. A chiropractor can help you recover from a fracture after a car accident by helping you regain strength and mobility as you rehabilitate.
What to Expect with a Car Accident Chiropractor
No matter if you have a few scrapes and bruises or are dealing with a serious injury after a car accident, a chiropractor can help. When you first visit your Snellville car accident chiropractor, they will perform a thorough evaluation to assess how the car accident has impacted you. While you might have pain and discomfort in one specific area, your chiropractor will want to evaluate you from head to toe and note how any issues in your spine and joints might be contributing to your symptoms. A chiropractor will want to know when you first started noticing pain and other symptoms and whether certain movements, activities, or home remedies helped or made things worse. Your medical history can also give your chiropractor a better picture of your health so they can best assist you. They may also want to run diagnostic imaging tests like X-rays or CT scans to get a better look at the injured area. Once your car accident chiropractor has diagnosed the source of your pain and other symptoms, they will develop a personalized treatment plan for you. You will get the most out of seeing a car accident chiropractor when you follow through on your prescribed treatment plan. After-accident care with a chiropractor will focus on addressing your immediate symptoms along with the root cause of your pain.
Visit AICA Orthopedics in Snellville to learn more about how our team of car accident chiropractors can help you after a car accident. Our chiropractors work alongside orthopedic doctors, neurologists, and physical therapists to provide you with comprehensive treatment and care after a car accident. Let us help take care of you as you recover from a car accident and experience the benefits of chiropractic care first-hand when you visit AICA Orthopedics.