Whiplash Treatment Options
Many of us have been in an auto accident before. Basically, everyone knows someone who has been injured in an auto accident. Thankfully, with the addition of seat belts and headrests in modern cars, there are far fewer fatalities in auto accidents. The seatbelt has been invaluable for the life of automobile drivers by preventing them severe head trauma from going head first into the windshield. However, as a result, there are many more injuries caused by whiplash during auto accidents because while you are less likely to hit the windshield, you are much more likely to experience soft tissue damage from whiplash because your body is being held in place by the seatbelt while you head is being whipped forward and then quickly back.
The most common cause of injury in a car accident is whiplash but it is also one of the most overlooked causes. Here’s why:
Medical treatment:
Medical doctors are fantastic in emergency situations. If you are in an auto accident and you end up in the EMERGENCY Room you should expect to receive care focused on diagnosing and treating emergency conditions e.g. fractures, lacerations, brain injuries, etc. Neck pain, back pain, headaches and other common secondary conditions that are caused by whiplash and/or spinal misalignment are not EMERGENCY conditions. It makes sense that your Emergency medical doctor is not going to be trained to treat these types of conditions. Furthermore, the medical profession as a whole is not equipped to treat these types of injuries beyond giving pain pills and muscle relaxers.
Traditional Chiropractic treatment:
A chiropractor who does traditional chiropractic care is going to be focused on treating your soft tissue injuries and spine by using a number of different treatments that are focused on pain relief. Examples of this type of pain care include using cold therapy, electric STIM, Ultrasound, and basic chiropractic adjustments. For patients injured in an auto accident, they will often only take x-rays of the area with pain and they will not take follow-up images because measurable improvement is not the goal. Pain relief is the primary objective. A traditional chiropractor is similar to a medical doctor except that he/she is using cold therapy, electric STIM, Ultrasound, and basic chiropractic adjustments to get rid of pain instead of drugs. While this is a safer and more effective option is does not always fully correct the underlying structural and soft tissue damage from whiplash injuries sustained in auto accidents.
Structurally Focused Chiropractic Treatment:
At Corrective Chiropractic, your chiropractor is focused on getting you out of pain but, more importantly, making measurable improvements to your diagnostic test results. What does that mean? Essentially, instead of stopping treatment based on how you feel your chiropractor KNOWS when the injury that caused your neck pain, back pain, headaches etc. has been healed to its maximum potential. This is very different than just stopping chiropractic care when you feel better.
Remember that many health care issues still exist even in the absence of pain and symptoms e.g. a heart attack is often the first sign of heart disease even though the disease is present long before the symptom of the heart attack is felt and the heart disease is still there after the heart attack is over. The same is true of the kind of serious ligament damage commonly seen injuries from whiplash during an auto accident. The neck pain and headaches may be gone but the damage is still there and necessitates chiropractic care to stabilize and heal properly to prevent future neck pain and headaches from returning.
Corrective Chiropractic MEASURES the improvement of your soft tissue injuries and spinal misalignments digitally. These measured changes are very important in patient care, especially if they have been injured in an auto accident. Your chiropractor at Corrective Chiropractic is the only chiropractor in Greenville, NC or even in the Eastern North Carolina area with this specialize equipment.
If you or someone you love has been involved in a recent auto accident call Corrective Chiropractic today to see Dr. Bret Wickstrom. If you want the best care possible to see a chiropractor who has the most up-to-date diagnostic equipment available specifically used for whiplash and auto accident injuries
