6 Reasons You Should Visit a Chiropractor After an Auto Accident
Car accidents can run the gamut from seemingly harmless fender benders to limb-breaking collisions. Regardless of the accident, prompt treatment is essential– especially when they concern the spine and related body parts. Receiving Chiropractic care is a great way to ensure that your body fully recovers– without the potential for recurring injuries. In this blog post, we’ll discuss why car accident victims should receive Chiropractic care, and the benefits that it carries.
Which Chiropractic Treatments Will the Chiropractor Apply?
Even for car accident victims, Chiropractic treatment can vary tremendously, depending on the injury.
Before beginning the treatment phase, the Chiropractor will assess the injuries in the patient’s body. By performing a comprehensive examination, the Chiropractor can develop the proper treatment strategy. This generally includes a Chiropractic adjustment, but may also include other treatments, such as heat or cold therapy.
By creating a treatment plan for the specific patient, the Chiropractor will ensure that all impacted sites are healed.
1. Treat Subtle Injuries
Some car accident injuries are quite obvious. Broken limbs and bruising are easy for medical personnel to identify, and are treatable. But, because of the impact that a car crash has on one’s body, car accident injuries are seldom this simple.
Often, car accident victims also suffer from a more subtle injury called whiplash. When the car rapidly transitions from high speeds to a complete stop, the victim’s neck often moves backward and then forward, in response. This motion usually leads to pain in the neck , upper back and shoulders. And, this condition isn’t always apparent in the moments following the car accident. Rather, whiplash tends to affect the patient either a few hours or days later.
Because the spine helps to make up the neck and upper back, Chiropractic is the best way to mitigate and treat this pain. So, a Chiropractic adjustment targeting the spine would treat whiplash. These subtle injuries may not be easily detectable, but Chiropractic will ensure that they do not evolve into larger issues.
2. Reducing Inflammation and Scar Tissue
While whiplash is a major issue in and of itself, it can also lead to other problems. Often, car accident victims develop inflammation and scar tissue in the impacted body parts.
Because the muscles in the body are experiencing rapid, involuntary movement, they often become inflamed. This motion causes small tears to form within the muscles. Inflammation causes the surrounding nerves to become irritated, and may lead to muscle spasms. For patients who work in a career that causes neck or back pain, the chances of this occurring are even higher. In the initial assessment, the Chiropractor will be able to detect muscle inflammation. Then, during Chiropractic treatments, he will target these areas to reduce inflammation.
Without a hands-on treatment, breaking up the scar tissue and reducing inflammation will take a very long time.
3. Fully Natural Treatment
After suffering an injury from a car accident, many victims delay their treatment because the symptoms are not immediate. Then, after they begin developing pain, they elect to take a more invasive route like surgery. However, many patients fail to recognize that surgery can present further difficulties down the line.
Even non-invasive surgeries require incisions, and in the aftermath of the surgery, most patients are restricted from physical activity. This route also carries the potential for other variables– infections, and other complications. Painkillers often prescribed pre/post surgery might work in the short term, but it’s easy for patients to begin relying on them.
Choosing Chiropractic to treat your car accident injuries eliminates the potential for these negative side effects. Instead, this fully natural form of pain management helps you to recover at your body’s pace, and in a way that is sustainable.
4. Heals the Entire Body
Whether you’re suffering from chronic or acute back pain, Chiropractic will reduce inflammation and heal that pain. But, the spine also acts as the body’s central neural network. So, reducing pain and restoring the spine’s proper alignment contributes to the body’s health overall. For example, Chiropractic is an effective way to treat TMJ pain and headaches.
5. Long-Term Treatment
The impact of a car accident is not limited to the month, or even the year, of the incident. Even patients who receive the prescribed treatment may experience recurring pain. Other non-Chiropractic treatment methods can heal pain in localized parts of the body. But, it may not fully address the source of the pain– which is often the spine.
Receiving Chiropractic care is the optimal way to keep these symptoms at bay for the long term. In promoting the spine’s recovery, spinal manipulations will help prevent the brain from receiving pain signals from related body parts.
Receiving consistent Chiropractic care will go a long way in gradually treating these injuries, preventing them from resurfacing later on.
6. Helps to Restore Range of Motion
Auto accidents often limit the body’s range of motion, or the potential to move specific joints. The resulting inflammation prevents the body from moving in its normal fashion. So, a patient that is suffering from whiplash may have a shortened range of motion in neck or possibly one or both shoulders. Chiropractic care aims to restore that range of motion.
By restoring the spine to its original position, the body is able to properly heal its self. As the inflammation is reduced and the scar tissue healed, you will be able to once again move joints in the normal fashion. Doing so allows you to engage in spine-strengthening exercises, which present plenty of benefits. In fact, a restored range of motion is one of the primary benefits of a Chiropractic adjustment.
Chiropractic Care for Auto Accidents
Without the proper treatment, auto accidents can have a lasting negative impact on one’s life. Receiving Chiropractic treatment immediately after the accident can mitigate this pain, and help you return to your lifestyle early on. Dr. Brenner will provide a specialized treatment for your unique condition, and help you to overcome this pain quickly. Contact us to schedule an appointment, and begin eliminating this pain.