Having a car accident is a terrifying experience that many people are lucky to walk away from. Car accidents can cause a lot of different issues and injuries, including those that may affect your back, your neck, your shoulders, and more. When you’ve found yourself experiencing pains after a car accident, you may have a need for a chiropractor. Going to a chiropractor after a car accident is useful for a lot of reasons, but what issues can a car accident cause? And how can a chiropractor help them?
Which Injuries Can a Car Accident Cause?
There are plenty of injuries that a car accident can cause. Some of these injuries may cause debilitating pain throughout your entire body. A chiropractor would be able to care for all these ailments easily. There are many such injuries, such as:
Whiplash
Whiplash is the term used to describe a painful condition that occurs when your head is quickly snapped in a direction. This most often occurs when a fast and heavy amount of force is applied, causing your head to “whip” in a direction without control, causing pain in your back, neck, and shoulders. Whiplash is categorized by pain, stiffness in the neck, inability to move your neck or other joints, and more. Whiplash is exceptionally painful and can severely impact your quality of life. A chiropractor is able to help effectively treat whiplash, allowing you to live pain-free once again.
Bulging or Herniated Disc
Your back is made of multiple bones, nerves, and tendons. Your spine cradles your spinal cord, which connects to your brain stem and allows you to function. Your spine has intervertebral discs, which are spongy cushions between your spine bones. These discs absorb shock and allow you to twist and bend normally. When your discs experience a sudden impact, you may damage or push a disc out of place. This causes bulging or herniated discs, which can be painful.
When someone is suffering from this condition, they may find even the simplest movements to be painful and hard to do. Living with this condition may even cause further damage to your back if not taken care of. Sometimes a disc with this issue may rupture and leak out, irritating the surrounding nerves. A chiropractor can manipulate the spine and help ease the pain and help with the management of this condition.
Bone Fractures and More
Bone fractures are a common occurrence when a sudden impact occurs. Car accidents are fast and forceful, causing bone fractures and other similar issues, including Fact joint injuries. Your Facet joints are bony protrusions in the spinal column. These protrusions prevent over-twisting or over-extension in the spine. These can become damaged during a collision, causing pain and mobility issues.
Muscle, Ligament, Nerve Issues
Another serious impairment that a car crash may cause is damage to your muscles, your ligaments, and your nerves. Your body consists of plenty of muscles, ligaments, and nerves. There is an entire map of these throughout your body, and during a car accident, many of these can become damaged in a variety of ways. When this happens, you may find it difficult to live normally, and may even experience issues with your mobility, grip, balance, posture, and more. Damages to any of these systems may also cause other issues such as headaches, spasms, nerve damage, seizures, and much more. Visiting a chiropractor allows a non-invasive, safe, and easy avenue of treatment for these issues.
How Can a Chiropractor Help?
The first thing that should be done after a car accident is to contact authorities and manage any serious injuries. From there, it’s wise to visit your doctor or visit the hospital to receive a general checkup to make sure that nothing more occurred that isn’t blatant. Once all serious and immediately life-threatening issues have been ruled out, it’s probably likely that you’re still experiencing some issues or pain. When this is the case, many people try to find alternative ways to manage their conditions and pains. Most people turn to medication, which can be dangerous and addictive. Chiropractors are a great way to treat car accident injuries without medications, but how?
Increase Mobility
After a car accident, you may find that your pain and your injuries are causing issues with your mobility. This may be a result of a variety of different issues. Having issues with your mobility not only puts extra strain on your body but also takes away from the enjoyment and quality of your life. When you can’t move normally, you may find yourself becoming depressed. You may also find that you begin to experience new health issues as a result of your lack of mobility.
A chiropractor can help increase your mobility using a variety of safe and tested techniques. Much like physical therapy, your chiropractor can manipulate your spine and your body (referred to as chiropractic adjustments) in such a way that makes moving easier. Your chiropractor will work closely with you to formulate a treatment plan that is not only safe but effective.
Non-Invasive
Chiropractic care is safe and non-invasive. While some more serious conditions may require surgery, many conditions caused by a car accident can effectively be managed and treated with chiropractic care. Your chiropractor has an arsenal of tools and techniques to help you become free from your pain, without any invasive and dangerous procedures.
Decrease Inflammation
Inflammation is common after a car accident, and extra inflammation on your body and your joints can cause pain, stiffness, and compression of your nerves and spinal column. Your chiropractor can easily help reduce your inflammation, allowing you to heal more quickly and without as much pain. Inflammation isn’t any fun, and your chiropractor can help decrease your inflammation levels after a car accident significantly.
Prevention of Further Issues
Leaving your issues go untreated from your car accident not only decreases your happiness and quality of life, but it can also cause greater issues down the line. Leaving issues untreated increases your chances of something serious occurring. Many ailments can get worse and even become deadly without treatment. Handling your ailments shortly after they occur is always recommended to avoid further complications. This helps you avoid unnecessary pain and complications in the future.
Medication Free Care in Fort Lauderdale
While modern medicine has come a long way, medication also has its downsides. Many medications are highly addictive and come with a long list of potential side effects, of which can be serious and even deadly. Many people turn to prescription drugs after a car accident, only to damage their health further with them by the way of side effects and addiction. Your chiropractor will be able to formulate a treatment plan that allows you to live pain-free without the use of potentially harmful medication.
Experiencing a car accident is often a life-altering event, whether physically, mentally, or emotionally. When you experience a car accident you’re often affected physically, and sometimes this causes chronic pain and other issues. Visiting a chiropractor is a great way to get the care you need after a car accident. Your chiropractor will work with you and even your PCP to ensure that your treatment is safe and effective. Don’t let a car accident leave you on the side of the road, get your life back with the help of chiropractic care. Our Fort Lauderdale chiropractor is here to help get you out of pain without surgery.