Car Accident Treatments in Tucker
Often patients are surprised when they learn we offer neurology services at Optimum Health Rehab, because they may think that chiropractic care is all we do. In fact, we offer a wide range of complementary services that help people with pain from car accidents, falls, injuries, or spinal misalignment, and this includes neurology services. Nerves are a key part of the transmission of pain signals, and sometimes they can be either a root cause of pain or a way to treat pain that doesn’t respond to other treatments.
What Tucker Neurology Services Are Available?
All first appointments begin with a neurological evaluation to determine if you have nerve or other neurological damage, so we know what kind of services you need. These diagnostics may include:
- MRIs
- CT scans
- X-rays
- Nerve conduction testing, which allows us to identify nerve damage in a particular area
- Physical therapy to reveal difficulties you’re experiencing or areas where you may have lost function
- A physical exam to look for signs of nerve damage as well as other issues that may cause or contribute to your pain
Once we’ve identified the cause or causes of your pain, we will design a treatment plan to help with these issues and reduce your discomfort. In many cases, we prescribe multiple treatment options so you can get the best results. Here are some possible neurological treatments we may recommend if you have signs of nerve or neurological difficulties:
Exercise and Oxygen Therapy
Exercise with oxygen therapy, or EWOT, has many neurological benefits. Often people lose some of their ability to utilize oxygen with age, and the cerebellum, a part of your brain that directs the spinal musculature, balance, and coordination, may not get as much oxygen. When this happens, spinal muscles may be tighter, which can lead to muscle spasms and make spinal misalignments more likely. By delivering oxygen therapy during exercise, we combine two important aspects of healing – increasing blood flow to the brain, and increasing the amount of oxygen delivered by it. This allows the cerebellum to function better, improving the function of spinal muscles as well as affecting coordination issues. We frequently use EWOT in combination with physical therapy and other treatments to help patients recover from injuries and regain lost function.
Physical Therapy
Physical therapy has many uses, including curtailing pain, restoring function, and strengthening muscle groups to prevent future harm or injuries. For example, if you have nerve pain from sciatica, your therapist may work to strengthen the muscles and vertebrae in your spine to relieve pressure on the sciatic nerve.
Your physical therapist might begin with a series of exercises to learn what your abilities are at the moment. Sometimes people feel apprehensive about these tests, but they are simply a way to gauge your current situation. If you aren’t able to complete an exercise, don’t worry about it – this lets your therapist know what you need to work on, which is very helpful.
After evaluating your current abilities and needs, your therapist will develop a series of exercises to help you meet your goals. Sometimes they may assist you by providing resistance for certain exercises. If you have difficulty, they can give you advice or modify the exercise.
After your first session, your therapist will usually give you a list of exercises to do at home. We recommend looking these over and letting us know if you have any questions, because the better you follow instructions and “do your homework,” the faster you’ll improve. If you have trouble with these home exercises, just let us know at your next session and we’ll work to find a solution. Continuing to work on physical therapy at home is an important part of the healing process, so we will do whatever we can to support you in your efforts.
Pain Management Injections
Sometimes patients have difficulty with physical therapy because they’re in a lot of pain. This is especially common when a patient has been unable to move very much for an extended period of time due to their injuries. Resting is good when trying to recover, but after a few days of rest, your muscles may start to get stiff, and eventually, they will grow smaller and weaker.
It’s not your fault that pain has stopped you from moving as much as you’d like, and if it’s preventing you from doing physical therapy, we can help by giving you injections into the joint or area where the pain is located. These shots are only a short-term solution, and it isn’t healthy to use them over an extended period of time. But they can reduce inflammation and pain long enough for you to work through physical therapy exercises, strengthen your body, and recover absent function.
Chiropractic Care
You may think of chiropractic care as a way to correct spinal misalignments rather than address nerve damage, but there are some situations where it can do both. If an alignment problem is causing compression of a nerve (as in sciatica, for example), we may be able to relieve that pressure by correcting the issue. For this reason, chiropractic adjustments may be part of a plan to improve nerve pain or neurological difficulties.
Regenerative Therapies
Our main regenerative therapy consists of platelet-rich plasma injections or PRP. This cutting-edge therapy uses your own blood cells to create a treatment. We draw your blood in our office, then place the sample in a centrifuge. This machine spins around, and the blood is separated by components, including a pale yellow liquid called plasma. The plasma is then further broken down into two parts – platelet-rich plasma and platelet-poor plasma.
Platelet-rich plasma contains not only platelets but also bio proteins and growth hormones associated with healing. This is the substance we inject into an injured muscle or joint where there may be nerve damage. Because the plasma comes from your own body, there is no need to worry about rejection or blood types. The platelet-rich plasma delivers a rich source of substances that promote healing in the body, in one concentrated injection, which can help relieve the pain of a persistent injury.
Electrical Stimulation
Sometimes compression or an acute injury can lead to permanent nerve damage, meaning that it persists even after the source of compression has been removed or the initial injury healed. In these cases, patients may continue to experience pain, burning, tingling, or numbness. Nerve damage can be difficult to treat, and many of the usual medications prescribed for nerve pain, like anticonvulsants and antidepressants, have a long list of side effects. Doctors are now reluctant to prescribe opioids, and for good reason – they carry a potential for addiction and have other unpleasant side effects like drowsiness and nausea.
Sadly, prescription medications for nerve pain can make it hard to function – but so can nerve pain! If it feels like you’re between a rock and a hard place when it comes to treating your nerve pain, Optimum Health Rehab may be able to help. In addition to other treatments, we also offer electrical stimulation therapies for nerve damage or pain.
Electrical stimulation can be done in the office, or at home with a mobile device called a TENS unit. Small electrodes are placed on the appropriate area and used to convey a low-volt electrical current at a frequency that confuses the nerves and blocks pain signals from reaching the brain. For many patients, it provides a safer alternative to drugs that could cause debilitating side effects or trigger an addiction.
What About Health Insurance Coverage?
This is a great question, and it’s easier to answer once we know what kind of insurance you have. Our office staff can check on the coverage and out-of-pocket costs for your recommended treatments, but in general, many of our services are covered by at least some insurance policies. There may be a copay, and our staff will provide you with an estimate for your portion.
If your nerve pain stems from a car accident or another situation where another party’s negligence caused you injury, you may be able to seek compensation for your medical costs, including neurology services. Even if you don’t think this is a possibility, we recommend scheduling a free consultation with a personal injury lawyer, who can advise you on any available options for getting your healthcare costs paid.
Book an Appointment for Tucker Neurology Services Today
Dealing with nerve pain can be exhausting, but at Optimum Health Rehab, we will work to diagnose your pain and create a comprehensive treatment plan. Please call (404) 793-1600 or contact us online today for an evaluation, so we can start working on healing your pain and restoring lost function.