Auto collisions are one of the more common things we see in our office. Car wrecks can cause significant damage to your body. Often times it is the low speed collisions that get overlooked as a very real cause of pain. When a car weighing 3500 lbs hits you, even at 5 or 10 miles an hour, it is going to hurt you.

Rear end collisions not only cause whiplash from your neck whipping forward and back but because of compression forces caused by the straightening of your spinal curves is a common cause of spinal disc herniations.

It is common place for a new patient to tell us their neck or back pain started after a auto accident that occurred many years prior to coming to our office. Most of them didn't seek out or did receive proper car following the accident. This is a huge mistake because auto insurance usually will pay 100% of your medical bills. These individuals waited too long and now have to pay out of pocket.

If you have been in a wreck here are the things you should do to reduce your risk of long term pain and suffering.

Seek profession help from someone trained in managing a car wreck. There are many things that need to be done when you get in a auto collision. You will need a team of people to help you get through. You will need expert medical help, a good insurance person and a lawyer to keep the insurance company off your back.
You will need a chiropractor who does much more that just adjusts your spine. It is extremely important that stretching and strengthening exercises are part of your treatment. Significant muscle damage occurs and needs to be rehabilitated for long term relief. Massage therapy and physical therapy are also often times needed to get maximum improvement. Your chiropractor should be able to manage your case by helping you to see the right medical providers, imaging center, specialists etc.
You will need a good auto body repair shop what will fix your car right and work with your insurance.
Patience is needed. Many car accidents require time to heal and receive the proper treatment. You need to make time now for your self in order to prevent as many long lasting ill effect from the collision.

At Advanced Spinal Care we provide the services you need to get feeling better from your car accident. If you have been in a car wreck call us now so we can help you get on the path to feeling better. Call us at 801-798-2515

Written by Steven Davis, D.C. Chiropractic Physician.

When we think about car wrecks we generally think about whiplash. However, disc herniations are common with car wrecks.

Spinal disc anatomy is such that a jelly center exists in each disc. With enough force, this jelly center will be blown out the back of the disc resulting in a spinal disc herniation. When the jelly center is herniated outside the disc it will cause massive inflammation and compression on the spinal nerves causing shooting, radiation pains that go down you leg or arm.

The mechanism for a disc injury is interesting. When in a rear end collision, you are compressed against your seat. This compression straightens the normal curves in your spine resulting in a lengthening of the spine. This extremely rapid lengthening puts massive compression forces on the spinal disc and can result in a disc herniation.

Some chiropractors treat disc herniations very successfully. It requires much more than just getting an adjustment. We use a combination of therapies to help the disc to heal. Our office uses special tables that do spinal decompression or flexion/distraction which causes pumping and traction forces on the spine. These forces can pull the herniation back into the disc so the disc can then heal. It is impossible for a disc to heal with the jelly center (nucleus pulpulsus) in the way. We have pre and post MRI's from patients we have seen in our office demonstrating we can indeed heal a disc.

A key aspect to our care is the spinal strengthening portion. We spend significant time strengthening the spine and core so injured patients can return to daily activities with as little limitation as possible. Each visit we adjust the patient's spine to increase as much function as possible. The combination of these therapies have proven to be very effective. If your core is not strengthened the benefits will be limited, however, with a strong core, the benefits can be long lasting. My wife suffered from a disc herniation for 4 years until she met me. I took her to a chiropractor that did proper rehabilitation procedures (obviously before I had gone to chiropractic school) and now, 12 years later, she is still able to enjoy life with minimal to no discomfort. Not something a low back surgery patient can often say.

There is a great study that took patients who had suffered on average for 5 years with a disc herniation with pain radiating down their leg. These patients received chiropractic care combined with spinal strengthening similar to what we do in our office. At the end of their treatment 90% of those in the study had an average of 77% improvement in symptoms. A follow up over a year later 80% of the patients rated their improvement by 80%.
J Manipulative Physiol Ther 2009 (Nov); 32 (9): 723–733

If you or someone you know is suffering from a car wreck or a disc herniation that would like to avoid surgery. Please have them call our office. We would be happy to provide a risk free consultation and tour of our facility. 801-798-2515