How Chiropractic Care Supports Car Accident Recovery

Is there anything more terrible than being in a car accident? A vehicle accident not only ruins your day, but it may also feel as if your life has been destroyed. There’s a lot of stress caused by a vehicle accident from the moment of collision. In addition to determining insurance coverage, fault, repairs, and the hassle of everything, there’s another even more pressing issue that can intrude on everyday life: injury.

If you were hurt in a car wreck, you may be wondering if chiropractic care can help. After all, it’s only natural to seek out relief after an injury, especially if traditional medical treatments haven’t worked. If you’re interested in learning more about how chiropractic care can help with car accident injuries, read on.

The 3 Stages of a Car Accident: During, Immediately After, and Long-Term

There are three main stages of a car accident: during, immediately after, and long-term effects.
The during stage is the moment of impact, which can lead to injury and recovery. The immediate aftermath in the minutes, hours, and days afterward are crucial for determining how the body heals from any sustained injuries. Finally, a car accident’s long-term effects can last years or even a lifetime for some people.

Your Body During A Car Accident

If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance that you’re not currently in the middle of a vehicle accident—which is good! However, you’ve undoubtedly been in an automobile accident before, perhaps just recently. The car is struck or strikes another thing during a car collision. It could be another automobile, a stationary object, or anything else entirely—a wall, a body of water, or a deer for example. In the instant that the vehicle collides with or is impacted by another object, the force spreads throughout the car and the bodies of the people inside of it.

Automobiles are designed to absorb as much of the accident impact as possible, yet the way they absorb impact is seldom adequate to protect passengers from harm. Cars frequently crumple in collisions for a reason: the crumpling effect is intended to channel the force of the collision away from you and onto the automobile!

Even if your car doesn’t look like it was damaged in a collision, your body likely felt the impact. Some research suggests that people often hurt themselves more when their car isn’t as damaged because it means their bodies absorbed most of the shock!

Your body’s structure, unlike your car, is not designed to crumple in order to absorb shock. Every joint needs room so that your bones can be cushioned. Even a minor automobile accident can cause significant damage to the discs between joints. The following are some of the most frequent types of injuries suffered in a car accident:

Whiplash

You’re right to assume that whiplash is something related to automobile accidents–and you’re correct! Whiplash is one of the most prevalent injuries caused by car accidents and other violent impacts.

Whiplash is caused by the head being forcefully thrown forward and backward, resulting in strained neck muscles and joints. Common long-term effects of whiplash are chronic pain in the neck, headaches, migraines, brain fog, numbness or tingling sensations in the arms and hands, as well as muscle disorders around the neck and back.

If untreated, whiplash can lead to lingering injuries that worsen under stress. This is because the neck’s joints are often irregularly positioned following a whiplash, which in turn results in an assortment of painful symptoms and movement problems.

Back Pain

Car accident injuries are the most common cause of chronic back pain. Because of the force of a car accident, bones and joints in the spine can slip out of alignment. This causes a slew of issues when the bones and joints in the spine shift out of position as a result of impact.

What causes nerves to be injured in a motor vehicle accident? The first thing to consider is that misalignment in the spine can cause discomfort. The pain is typically caused by inflamed, compressed, or even severed nerves. When the collision pushes the spine out of alignment, it can crush and inflame nearby nerves that would not otherwise be affected by the bones and joints.

Neck Pain

Neck discomfort is another frequent consequence of vehicle accident injuries. They might be caused by whiplash, which is the abrupt throttling of the neck forward and backward or side to side during impact, or by the body’s response to the collision. When the body absorbs a collision’s force, it may frequently crush or compress soft and spongy discs in the spine. The cervical spine, which lies in the area of the neck, can be damaged as a result of this.

Knee Pain

In certain automobile accidents, the knees may absorb a large amount of force. This is because, depending on the sort of accident and your knees’ position and location, they might be compelled to rotate or twist during the collision. This can lead to a wide range of ailments and residual discomfort that never leaves your knees feeling “quite right.”

Headaches & Migraines

Have you been experiencing headaches and migraines as a result of a vehicle accident? We’re so preoccupied with the practical concerns of a vehicle collision (insurance, car repair, alternate transportation, financial difficulties, etc.) that we don’t have time to think about or even notice residual injuries that were not visible open wounds or were not immediately debilitating. The most prevalent injury that people overlook after automobile accidents is headache and migraine pain, which can last for weeks, months, and even years following the incident.

Why do people get headaches and migraines after car accidents? The number one reason is stress. Though scientists can’t pinpoint exactly what causes migraines, they know that stress plays a big role. Car accidents are very stressful, and the aftermath often leaves behind lingering stress that still contributes to headaches and migraines.

Spinal misalignment and inflammation from a car accident are not the only causes of headaches and migraines. Whiplash, a subluxation (joints sliding out of place in the spine), and other injuries can go unseen but still have long-term effects such as migraines or headaches. Unfortunately, some people never connect their current migraines or headaches to car accidents they had years ago.

Sciatica

Have you ever wondered where your sciatic pain came from? The source of your discomfort may be found in the past—it was caused by a car accident. Sciatica is an acute, stabbing sensation that begins at the bottom of one’s legs and shoots down one’s back. When this pain strikes, it can feel as if your leg or legs are being pulled out from under you. Sciatica is difficult to live with, and it doesn’t always respond to medications, stretching exercises, or other commonly recommended therapies.

Misalignment of the low back joints, as well as misalignment of joints in the low back, can all be induced by automobile accidents. The body’s natural attempt to absorb the force of another vehicle or object in the bones and joints. Unfortunately, bones and joints aren’t intended to withstand this sort of impact, so they frequently shift out of alignment as a result.

If your joints move out of alignment, it can become a serious problem for your nervous system. The nerves that wrap around the spinal cord are interrupted when the joint moves, which can cause inflammation and pain. Sciatica is a common type of pain that can be debilitating and unpredictable.

What happens immediately after impact?

If you’re involved in a minor vehicle accident (or a major one in which you don’t go to the hospital), the first thing you should do once everything legal and financial has been taken care of is seek medical attention. If injuries aren’t severe enough to require hospitalization, they generally aren’t treated right after a vehicle accident—but they should be.

It is critical to get treatment immediately to avoid any “hidden injuries.” Some injuries, particularly head wounds, can develop as a consequence of an accident and should be treated right away. If you have any concerns, see a doctor.

After ensuring that you don’t have any life-threatening injuries, it’s time to look at care for your neuromusculoskeletal system. This is the part of the body most impacted by car accidents, and it’s also the area that chiropractic care specializes in treating.

Seeking Chiropractic for Car Accident Injuries in Virginia Beach, VA

After a car accident, it is integral to seek chiropractic care in order to heal your joints, muscles, and nerves efficiently. This will allow for your neuromusculoskeletal system–the system made up of these three key body parts–to receive the comprehensive treatment it needs. Each component of the neuromusculoskeletal system plays a major role in how smoothly your body functions as a whole. If you want to give yourself the best chance at healing after an accident where these systems are often injured, look for expert chiropractic care today!

Dr. Samantha Coleman of Chiro Solutions Center in Virginia Beach, Virginia will conduct a comprehensive examination to determine how you can recover from a vehicle accident injury. You may get started on your road to wellness and return to your normal routine without pain! Contact us now to schedule your first appointment.