- June 26, 2023
If you are experiencing back pain after a car accident, you should seek a diagnosis and treatment immediately. You could have a serious injury, and delaying treatment could worsen your symptoms and result in lifelong disabilities or chronic pain.
At Specific Care Chiropractic, our team provides back injury treatment that includes diagnostic services, treatment, and rehabilitation for many causes of back pain, including car accident injuries. We can help you get relief. Call us today to learn more or make your initial intake appointment with our chiropractors.
Why Am I Experiencing Back Pain After a Car Accident?
Collisions can cause extreme forces on the body, moving it beyond its normal range of motion, slamming it into objects, and causing innumerable injuries. Many of these can affect the neck, back, spine, and other structures and cause pain, limited range of motion, and other symptoms.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 2.1 million motor vehicle accident victims go to the emergency room each year, and back pain is one of the most common complaints. Back pain could occur because of:
- The jolt of another vehicle striking yours
- The force placed on your back and torso as your vehicle slides, jostles, or rolls
- The impact of an airbag
- Serious injuries to your back during the accident
The human body is not always sturdy enough to absorb the force of a car accident. Your accident may have caused new injuries or worsened preexisting conditions. Whatever the cause of your accident-related back pain, you deserve relief. You do not have to live with debilitating pain.
To get relief, you first need a clear diagnosis and targeted treatment plan designed to address your underlying injuries. This is where the practitioners at Specific Care Chiropractic come in.
Back Injuries That May Be Causing Your Back Pain After a Car Accident
As a team that frequently helps motor vehicle accident victims with back pain, we know that accident-related injuries can include:
- Spinal Cord Injuries: If you suffer a herniated disc or other soft-tissue injury, fractured vertebrae, or other spinal injuries, you may endure severe pain. The specific part of your spine that suffered the injury may determine where your back pain is emanating from. Some of these injuries can also cause paralysis, numbness, or neurological symptoms.
- Whiplash: Whiplash usually causes neck pain, but the pain could extend further down to your back. Many injuries can cause a domino effect of pain, especially if you do not receive proper treatment quickly. You should seek treatment for whiplash, whether it has caused pain in your neck, back, shoulders, or elsewhere. Contrary to popular belief, there are effective treatments and pain management therapies.
- Nerve Injuries: Back pain can be a symptom of pinched nerves, pressure from broken bones or bone fragments on a nerve, or other nerve-related abnormalities. These injuries can cause severe pain and other nerve-related issues, such as numbness.
- Fractures: Broken bones can throw your body into disarray. A fracture may be painful and may affect other areas of your body, such as nerves, that result in substantial discomfort.
Not all back pain occurs immediately after a car accident. If you experience delayed lower back pain after a car accident, do not dismiss the pain as usual accident-related soreness. Any form of pain could be a symptom of serious injury.
You do not want to have a serious spinal cord or nerve injury that could progress as swelling and inflammation increase. It is a good idea to talk to a medical professional about accident-related back pain as soon as possible.
Possible Treatments for Back Pain and Injuries After a Car Accident
Some serious spinal cord injuries require extensive surgical repair and inpatient rehabilitation. If you experience extreme pain, inability to move your extremities, numbness in your legs, torso, or arms, or other immediate and severe symptoms, you need emergency evacuation from the crash scene and triage in a hospital trauma unit.
However, these serious spinal injuries occur only rarely compared to the millions of people who endure pain, stiffness, and missed income because of accident-related back pain each year.
If you have delayed pain, general soreness, nagging back pain, or an injury that is serious enough to make you miss out on activities, a chiropractor can assess your injuries, prescribe a personalized treatment plan, and even offer physical therapy and rehabilitation to ensure you can get back to work and all your favorite activities.
What to Expect at Your Initial Appointment for Back Pain After a Collision
As physicians, our top priority is your health and well-being. We take the necessary steps to ensure we understand the cause of your pain, any contraindications for treatment, and other factors that could affect your recovery. During your initial intake exam, you should expect:
- A physical exam of your back, range of motion, and reflexes
- X-rays and other medical imaging
- A comprehensive health history
- Discussion of your crash and symptoms
- To talk about your usual activities and goals
Our doctors take the necessary steps to understand your injuries and symptoms. Then, we use our experience and knowledge to develop a personalized treatment plan to address your car accident back pain. Often, we begin physiotherapy and chiropractic care that day.
We Provide Chiropractic Adjustments to Address Car Crash Back Pain
Our team believes in treating back pain with proven methods. We administer treatment progressively, trying the least invasive treatment methods before considering other options.
Our chiropractors realign car accident victims’ vertebrae with swift, forceful thrusts known as chiropractic adjustments. These adjustments release the pressure and relieve the pain that misaligned vertebrae can cause. We perform several types of adjustments depending on each patient’s unique needs. This includes:
- Toggle recoil
- Diversified adjustments
- Side posture
- Knee-chest
- Activator
- Thompson Drop-Table Technique
- Sacral-occipital technique (SOT)
When you trust our team with your care, we will diagnose your injuries, explore your symptoms, and advise you about which technique(s) may be most effective in relieving your pain. However, addressing the underlying cause of your pain is not the last step in the treatment process. We will also prescribe physical therapy and rehabilitation specifically suited to your unique needs.
Our Physiotherapists Improve Patient Outcomes
We prescribe physiotherapy services to address pain, improve range of motion, and help patients heal. Our physical therapists use a wide range of techniques to relieve pain and promote long-term recovery. This could include:
- Controlled stretching
- Strengthening exercise therapy
- Ultrasound therapy
- Corrective care
- Massage therapy
- Electrical muscle stimulation (E-STIM)
These are generally noninvasive therapies with minimal risk but potentially immense power to relieve back pain. We often prescribe and perform several of these therapies to address the symptoms and sources of back discomfort.
We Aim to Rehabilitate Every Patient
Rehabilitation is a critical step on the road to recovery from back injuries. Once we have addressed the underlying cause of your back pain, we will guide you through the four stages of the rehab process, which include:
- The Acute Phase: We treat your pain, often using physiotherapy and chiropractic adjustments.
- The Rehabilitation Phase: We adjust treatment to address any ongoing injury symptoms that arise as you heal.
- The Strengthening Phase: You grow stronger, transitioning from healing and recovering to strengthening. We aim to help you achieve long-term health and physiological stability.
- The Maximum Medical Improvement (MMI) Phase: Once you reach maximum medical improvement, you have reached the optimal recovery point. We have done our job, you’re feeling better, and you’re ready to resume your life.
Our team will lead you through each of these stages. Our goal is for every car accident victim we treat to reach the MMI stage. This often means they leave our care healthier and stronger than they were before their accident, injuries, and back pain.
We Assist Our Patients With Documentation for Auto Accident Legal Cases
Many car accident victims pursue personal injury claims to recover reimbursement for their medical care and other damages. This could include the care our team provides you.
When a car accident attorney requests our help documenting injuries, showing costs, and estimating future care needs, we can assist them by:
- Providing medical images of your injuries
- Providing all records of chiropractic care
- Testifying about the details of your injuries and treatments
We take a personal investment in our clients. Whether we’re relieving your pain or helping your lawyer build a case, Specific Care Chiropractic will do everything possible to help you.
Call Specific Care Chiropractic to Discuss Treating Your Back Pain
Back pain is not something you have to live with, and the pain is unlikely to go away on its own. Let our doctors at Specific Care Chiropractic help you. We can diagnose your injuries and prescribe a personalized treatment plan at any of our locations: Cape Coral, Fort Myers, or Lehigh Acres, FL.
Call Specific Care Chiropractic today to learn more or make an appointment.
