Take care of that neck after a car accident.

If you’ve been in a car accident recently or in the past; make sure you get your spine checked by an upper cervical specialist right away.  Upper cervical specialists can provide care that is safe, specific and gentle.  There is no bending or twisting of the neck. 

Car accidents can move bones out of alignment.

If there was enough force to bend sheet metal, there was enough force to potentially shift something out of alignment in your spine.  Since the top bone in your neck only has one lock, it is the easiest one to misalign.  This will give you headaches, neck pain, dizziness, facial pain and numbness, along with a list of other problems.

 Even when there are no dents visible on your car’s steel frame, the soft tissues of your spinal column are much more fragile.  People who have been involved in minor fender benders are often more concerned about damage to their cars than to themselves. But whether or not the airbags deployed is not a good measure of how much damage may have been done to your body.  If you noticed that you cell phone or wallet has moved, that means you did, too.

Whiplash Injuries at Low Speed Car Accidents

During a car accident, your neck is subjected to a sudden and often violent flexion forward and extension backwards.   Since your head weighs as much as a bowling ball.  You can experience up to 170 lbs. of force on the neck, even at speeds below 10 mph. This sudden acceleration/deceleration in an accident subjects the spine to a complex series of distortions known as whiplash.

Mild whiplash injuries can cause strain by having your neck muscles hyper-extended.  There may be torn ligaments that support the spine’s vertebrae. In severe cases, the discs between the vertebrae can herniate, or there could be damage to the nerves.

Most people don’t get the proper care to correct the damage of a car accident

Following a car accident, some people who experience stiffness may see a doctor or even visit the emergency room at a hospital. They usually look for broken bones and other life threatening problems.  Typically, the care will consist primarily of medication, which only masks the underlying problem by alleviating pain. Soft tissue damage does not necessarily show up on medical imaging such as X-ray, MRI or CT Scan.

Why specific upper cervical for a car accident?

Specific upper cervical care focuses on the top two bones in your neck.  Special x-rays are taken in order to find the exact pathway the bone moved out of alignment.  This allows more individualized care, and creates a gentler adjustment.  As mentioned earlier, there is no bending or twisting of the neck.

You don’t have to get the tissue to calm down with massage, heat or ice before upper cervical care can be done.  Since there is no bending or twisting of the neck; people can get adjusted even when they can’t move.  In fact, we have adjusted people in wheel chairs.

Whiplash injuries appear long after a car accident

How a person feels directly after a car accident may have nothing to do with the unseen damage beneath the surface. Torn ligaments and tendons may begin to develop scar tissue, which will become painful much later. Subluxations can lead to degenerative arthritis of the spine that manifests itself as intense pain years after the fact. If you have already settled with an insurance company, you may find yourself paying out of pocket for the delayed onset of whiplash symptoms

Dr. Robert Moore at Awesome Chiropractic in Brighton has been practicing specific upper cervical adjusting for over 20 years.  He has adjusted people with severe head traumas, brain tumors, fractured spines and post surgical patients. 

Dr. Moore has found that most people who get in a car accident will feel the negative affects sometime in their life.  Those that work to get the problem corrected earlier, are easier to care for and will avoid a long term problem and a lifetime of pain and discomfort.

While it is important to receive an upper cervical  chiropractic evaluation as soon as possible after a car accident, late is better than never.   Call our office today,

(810) 225-7246

All you have to lose is your pain.

Tags: a chiropractor, accident injury, alternative medicine, back, car, car accident, car accident injury, chiropractic, chiropractic care, chiropractor, health, injury pain, manipulative therapy, spinal adjustment, vertebral subluxation, whiplash