5 Reasons to See a Chiropractor or PT After a Car Crash
Many people judge the severity of a car accident by the state of their vehicles after a crash. But human bones and soft tissue are much more vulnerable than reinforced steel. Modern cars are built to absorb as much of the force of a collision as possible. But even with safety features in place, your body takes some of that shock. Even minor accidents like fender-benders can cause severe injuries and chronic pain. Your condition could get even get worse over time if you don’t treat the cause of the problem. That’s where a chiropractor or physical therapist comes in.
Visiting a chiropractor or physical therapist can actually help ease some of the stress from your injury and get you on the right track to recovery.
There’s never a “convenient time” to get into an accident. Car crash injuries can affect your ability to do your job or take care of your family. You’ve already got enough on your plate and finding the time to see a chiropractor or physical therapist is just another struggle to add to the pile.
1. You Have a Better Chance at Recovery
It’s important to get checked out by a medical professional soon after a car accident, even if you think you “feel fine.” Your doctor may take x-rays or MRIs of your injuries. While you may not need surgery for your injuries, you could still require treatment such as physical rehabilitation and medicine for any pain or health issues that you’ve suffered as a result of the accident. Your doctor may refer you to a physical therapist or chiropractor to continue your treatment.
Although painkillers can help with the discomfort of an injury, they don’t treat the ultimate cause underneath. Your pain may go away after time even left untreated – however, that doesn’t mean the underlying cause has been fixed. Many joint, soft tissue, and spinal injuries result in other muscles of your body overcompensating to make up for the injury. As a result, the injury doesn’t necessarily get better – your body just learns to cope with it. This can lead to injuries in the areas of your body that are working overtime to keep up.
Physical therapists and chiropractors can help treat the actual injury beneath the pain. Instead of leaving your recovery to chance, you actually get on the right track to better mobility, increased strength, and reduced pain before the issue becomes chronic.
2. Minimizing or Avoiding Long-Term Problems
Working with a chiropractor or physical therapist can help you treat acute injuries before they become chronic problems. And the sooner you get started, the better.
Your body can and will heal on its own – but that doesn’t mean it’ll heal properly. Ligament and muscle tears can scar over internally, causing tightness, stiffness, lost mobility, and arthritis over the long term. The more embedded your injuries become, the more that tightness can affect other parts of your body, your posture, even the way you walk.
You may come to realize that the pain you used to feel only occasionally has felt that way for… days, weeks, months, or even years. At that point, you’ve got a chronic injury.
A physical therapist can help you properly strengthen your body after an injury so that it heals correctly. A chiropractor can help you catch joint or spine misalignments before they progress to scoliosis or disc problems. If your car injury was caused by someone else, a personal injury settlement could compensate you for your treatments.
3. Pain Reduction and Management
It may sound counter-intuitive, but movement can actually lessen joint pain. When treating your injury with physical therapy, the right exercises pump nutrients and oxygenated blood to the site of your injury. This helps your body’s healing process.
By targeting the source of the pain, you can get closer to being pain-free without relying on painkillers.
4. Treating Latent or Invisible Injuries
The human body is incredibly complex, with so much happening below that surface that may not be obvious right away. Even with mild pain or no pain at all, something could be out of place.
Not only that but everything is connected. A back injury could aggravate your hip. A hip injury could put pressure on your knee. A knee injury could inflame your ankle.
Spinal injuries are especially complicated, causing ripple effects throughout the body.
Many latent injuries don’t become an issue until they’ve progressed. By that time, you may need much more intensive treatment such as surgery. Catching any injuries early on can help you get compensation for your treatment and avoid more drastic intervention later on.
5. Documenting Evidence of Your Injuries
If your car accident was caused by someone else, you could have a personal injury lawsuit against them to cover the cost of treating your injuries. After all, if you’re an innocent party, you shouldn’t have to be responsible for footing the bill for someone else’s harm.
Going to a doctor puts you on the right path to treatment by getting you a diagnosis. A physical therapist or chiropractor can help you understand your diagnosis and what recovery might look like, including how much treatment you’ll need for the short and long term.
If you decide to file a personal injury lawsuit, the record of your physical therapy and chiropractic visits will help deepen the court’s understanding of your injury and exactly what you’ll need to recover. This can help you get the full compensation you need to cover your medical bills.
When should I visit a Chiropractor or PT After a Car Accident?
The sooner you visit a physical therapist or chiropractor after your car accident, the better.
It’s important to see a doctor such as your primary care physician first so that they can rule out more serious injuries such as traumatic brain injuries, broken bones, or spinal cord injuries. Your doctor may even recommend you see a PT or chiro and give you a referral.
Talk to us— We can help!
If you or someone you know has suffered a life-changing injury as a result of a car accident, you should not hesitate to contact an attorney as soon as possible. At Wilshire Law Firm, we don’t just fight for our clients in court – we also make sure they get the medical and physical treatment they need to recover.
You shouldn’t have to pay to recover from an injury caused by someone else, and that’s where our hard-working personal injury lawyers come in. We offer a 24/7 FREE case consultation and absolutely NO fees unless you win. If you’d like to contact us, feel free to call today at (877) 544-0852. You can also reach us at our online form, or via our instant chat button on your screen.
