Car accidents are scary, dangerous, and emotionally taxing... not to mention expensive! They can wreak havoc on your body and your life leading to chronic pain, missed work, and a lowered quality of life. Luckily, this doesn't have to be the case. If you are involved in an auto-accident here are 5- important reasons why chiropractic care should be part of your recovery team.
1.) Safe, Gentle, Holistic Care
If there are obvious injuries after the accident you will likely be taken to an ER for x-rays and/or an evaluation. The ER- staff are generally looking for obvious injuries such as bone fractures, cuts/scrapes/burns, and head trauma. This is important! However after you go home, it is important that you have your spine (especially your neck) evaluated by a chiropractor who will look more specifically for soft tissue injury (like a muscle strain or ligament sprain), spinal alignment abnormalities, and neurological changes. Even if there are no obvious injuries after an accident, both parties should still be evaluated by a chiropractor for potential injury.
2.) Knowledge and Expertise on Spinal Health
Chiropractors hold doctorate level degrees from accredited schools and extensively study anatomy, physiology, and nutrition. Most chiropractors also have a lot of clinical experience with car-accident patients. I can't tell you how many times I've seen exasperated patients come in to the clinic with headaches, neck pain, and arm numbness a month after an accident wondering why they are in such rough shape when they felt "completely fine" after the accident. They often report that other doctors have recommended pain killers, muscle relaxers, or some sort of injection for the pain or else sent them down a "referral rabbit hole" for extensive tests with no real answers.
3.) Whiplash, Whiplash, Whiplash!
Whiplash can occur at as little as 1-mph! This one surprises people (it surprised me when I heard it). Whiplash is a specific type of injury generally associated with head-on collisions or getting rear-ended where the neck "whips" forward and then backward causing significant soft-tissue injury and disruption of proper spinal alignment. Symptoms include neck pain, headaches, numbness in the neck/shoulders/arms, balance problems, trouble sleeping, and changes in mental status. All whiplash patients should see a chiropractor. With proper chiropractic care, people can often overcome the symptoms of whiplash and restore proper spinal alignment.
4.) Experts in Low Back Pain
In my experience people associate neck pain with car accidents more than low back pain and often are unsure of whether their low back pain is a result of an accident. This can be especially confusing if they have existing low back pain. Low back pain after an accident is very common, depending on the nature of the accident. If you're wearing a seat-belt (hopefully that's the case), the force of your body flying-forward is focused on the area of the strap which can cause muscle, ligament, bone, and disc damage in that area. If you had existing low back issues, you should ask yourself some basic questions. Does the pain now feel different than the pain before the accident? Has the pain gotten worse, more frequent, or made activities more difficult? If you answered yes to any of these questions, the accident likely aggravated the current condition and/or caused additional damage. Regardless, you should check-in with your chiropractor.
5.) Insurance pays for your care (in Minnesota)
Minnesota is a "no-fault" state which means that when drivers pay their car-insurance, they are automatically paying for something called PIP (Personal Injury Protection). This protects them if they are ever involved in an accident by paying for their medical bills including x-rays, ER visits, and chiropractic care if they are medically necessary. This allows individuals suffering from auto-accidents to get the care deserved to them without worrying about cost of care. In our clinic, we accept both Personal Injury and Workers Compensation insurance.
About Power of Life: If you are involved in an accident, currently suffer from an old injury from an accident, or feel great and want to stay healthy then we can help!
Give our clinic a call and chat with our team! 952-443-9000