The kinds of injuries that result from a car accident are diverse and wide-ranging depending on a person’s position in the car, whether or not he or she was wearing a seat belt or was in a seat with an air bag, where the car was hit, etc. Even slow-speed accidents can cause serious damage to the body, as there are many hard surfaces like doors and the dashboard that a person can hit.
When you’ve been injured in a car accident, the type and extent of your injuries should determine where you go for treatment. Certainly, things like cuts and abrasions, broken bones, and concussions should be treated at a medical care facility. But many other types of injuries can be successfully treated by quality chiropractic care. You may know that chiropractors treat most spine, neck, and back injuries, but did you know they can often treat other musculoskeletal injuries as well?
During a car accident, muscles, ligaments, tendons, and nerves can be stretched, compressed or bent. These types of musculoskeletal injuries can be just as painful as broken bones and can greatly affect your ability to perform simple tasks. Signs that you may have incurred this type of injury include pain that worsens with activity, inflammation, redness, and swelling.
Whiplash is the most common of these car accident musculoskeletal injuries, but other areas of the back and spine can also be involved. And the same forces that throw a person’s head out of normal range of motion can act similarly on the arms and legs resulting in trauma to the muscles, ligaments, tendons and nerves in the extremities.
These types of injuries may be better treated through chiropractic care. As a matter of fact, a study from Switzerland that followed over 700 patients dealing with spine, hip, or shoulder pain found that those who saw MDs had less pain reduction and were significantly less satisfied with their care as compared to those who saw chiropractors. Even those who saw medical professionals first before seeking out a chiropractor were less satisfied with their outcomes. The conclusion of the study was that patients with musculoskeletal injures should seek out a chiropractor rather than an MD.
Since many injuries don’t show up until some time has passed, it may be wise to make an appointment with a chiropractor who focuses exclusively on car accident victims immediately after an accident. The chiropractor can check for lurking musculoskeletal injuries and treat them right away.
At Accident and Injury Chiropractic, we recognize that there may also be psychological injuries that result from a car accident. That is why at our clinics we treat all our patients with the care, kindness and understanding they deserve.
So, if you’ve been in a car accident, don’t wait. Come to an Accident and Injury Chiropractic clinic near you ASAP and get the quality treatment you need to recover from your musculoskeletal injuries.
