Car Accident Chiropractor in Grayson
Car accidents cause many painful injuries, and unfortunately, this pain doesn’t go away on its own for some patients. If you’ve been in a car crash, you may have soft tissue injuries that are difficult to diagnose, and your doctor may not have many treatment options besides strong pain medication. You could also have misalignments of the spine or joints that contribute to your pain or even a pinched or compressed nerve. A Grayson car accident chiropractor can help you with all of these injuries, providing safe and effective treatment options that don’t require using narcotic pain relievers or undergoing risky surgery.
At Optimum Health Rehab, we are a full-service clinic with car accident chiropractors and other specialists who can help you get back on your feet after an accident. Using a holistic approach, we’ll learn about you and your lifestyle, then we’ll use our suite of diagnostic tools to learn more about your injuries. This may include X-rays, MRIs, CT scans, nerve conduction testing, and a physical examination. Once we’ve diagnosed your injuries, we’ll design a treatment plan to relieve your pain and restore any lost function.
How Will a Grayson Car Accident Chiropractor Help Me?
There are two very common situations that we see after car accidents, and most of our patients fall into one of these categories:
You Go to the Emergency Room After a Car Accident
It’s always a good idea to get your injuries checked out and make sure nothing is broken. Emergency room doctors are very good at diagnosing and treating a broken leg or arm or more serious internal injuries. But when it comes to less visible injuries, like whiplash or other soft tissue damage, they are usually only able to treat your symptoms. The emergency room doctor may prescribe pain relievers and recommend that you rest and use ice or heat. For some people, this works and they recover in a few days or weeks.
But for others, the pain lingers, and further trips to the doctor are unproductive. The doctor may recommend over-the-counter pain relievers that simply aren’t effective. In some cases, they might prescribe a limited amount of opioid pain relievers, but these have side effects, including drowsiness and nausea, and they may be addictive. Your doctor might prescribe steroid shots for the muscle or joint, but these can also have serious side effects, including bone loss and nerve damage.
Frequently people make an appointment with us when they become frustrated with the lack of progress they’ve made with their doctor. They may have concerns about taking strong prescription medications but still need pain relief. We can help by offering safe and effective alternatives, including spinal manipulation, massage therapy, regenerative medicine, neurology therapies, physical therapy and specialized exercises, and nutritional support.
You Don’t Go to the Emergency Room After a Car Accident
There are two main reasons why people who are injured don’t seek care right away after a car crash:
- Surprisingly, many people don’t realize they are hurt. Car accidents are often traumatic, and the adrenaline can make you unaware of pain at first. In other situations, the injured person doesn’t experience pain right away because the injured area hasn’t become inflamed and swollen yet. This may happen after a few hours or the next morning. It’s not uncommon for someone to tell us they felt fine right after the accident but woke up the next morning in excruciating pain. If this has happened to you, don’t delay any further – contact a Grayson car accident chiropractor right away, and be sure to tell them about the accident.
- They have concerns about paying for care. This is also a very common occurrence. Today, between inflation and the cost of healthcare and health insurance, it’s not hard to see why this would be a major concern. However, continuing to be in pain can also be expensive, especially if it interferes with your ability to work. Fortunately, there are options for seeking compensation after a car accident, so you can get your medical bills covered.
Who is Going to Pay for These Car Accident Injuries?
This is a question for your personal injury lawyer, but in most cases, there is an available liability insurance policy that will cover all or most of your medical expenses. If the other driver was at fault, you should be able to make a claim on their liability insurance. Having well-documented medical records describing your injuries makes this process easier, so we recommend you seek chiropractic care immediately. Engaging the services of a lawyer will also help improve the odds of your claim being approved, as they can ensure that the claim is completed and submitted correctly. A good personal injury lawyer will not ask for any money upfront, and won’t charge a fee until they win your case.
In situations where it isn’t possible to prove the other driver was at fault, usually due to a lack of evidence, it may still be possible to get your medical care covered by your own car insurance policy. Again, it’s essential that you get treatment for your injuries right away, then speak with a lawyer to understand your options. If you aren’t sure how to find a personal injury attorney, our staff can put you in touch with one.
Car Accidents and Whiplash
Many people think about whiplash when they think of car accidents because it’s a very common injury. This is due to the nature of car accidents – most people slam on the brakes when trying to avoid a crash, and even if they don’t have time to, hitting another solid object like a car causes the vehicle to decelerate very quickly. When this occurs, the people inside the car continue to move forward at the same speed, but a seatbelt usually holds them in place. The person’s head, however, can continue to move forward, then snaps backward rapidly. This strains the neck muscles and ligaments, sometimes creating tiny tears in the tissue. As a result, the patient develops neck pain, either right away or sometime later.
If you go to the emergency room with neck pain after an accident, the doctor will first take an X-ray to ensure nothing is broken. Usually, they will keep you in a “C collar,” or neck brace, to prevent neck and spine movement until X-ray rules out fractures, to prevent making a potential fracture worse. Once fractures have been ruled out, the doctor will remove the neck brace and ask you to perform a series of activities to determine your range of motion. For example, they might ask you to turn your head from side to side or move it up and down. They may also test your reflexes or your ability to feel touch or other stimuli in your limbs.
After performing these and other tests, the emergency room doctor may diagnose you with whiplash. At this point, they will typically discharge you if there aren’t any other serious injuries. Some doctors may prescribe pain medication, while others will recommend over-the-counter remedies like ibuprofen. You might also be told to use an ice pack on your neck and take it easy for a few days.
If this doesn’t clear up your pain, further treatment options usually include several medications that can cause side effects and that don’t work well for every patient. As a result, many people consider chiropractic care as a safer alternative. We can help you with symptoms such as:
- Lingering neck pain, which may include throat tightness or pain that worsens with movement.
- Referred pain or tenderness/soreness in the shoulders and upper back. Some people believe whiplash only causes neck pain, but this isn’t always true.
Reduced range of motion. This means that your ability to move your head, neck, shoulders, or some combination of the above, has been compromised. For example, you might have a hard time turning your head to look at something because of your pain, or because the muscles or ligaments in the neck have been damaged.
Other Injuries from Car Accidents
We’ve talked mostly about whiplash because it’s so common, but it’s not the only kind of car accident injury that brings people to see us. Patients may also experience back pain or joint pain that’s hard to diagnose after a car crash. Shoulder pain is also common, and may be caused by a seatbelt protecting you from further injury. As with neck pain, these symptoms could be caused by damage to the muscles or soft tissues, blockages or misalignments in the spine or joint, or compressed nerves. Your Grayson car accident chiropractor will work to determine the root cause or causes of your symptoms and organize a treatment plan to begin relieving your pain.
Grayson Car Accident Chiropractors at Optimum Health Rehab
If you’re experiencing pain or other symptoms following a car accident and hope to avoid surgery or the side effects of prescription medications, please give us a call at Optimum Health Rehab today. The sooner you contact us for an appointment, the sooner we can help you feel better.