The Importance of Getting Early Evaluation No Matter How Minor the Injuries May Seem

As a chiropractor, I can't tell you how often I get a new patient who comes in for an evaluation because they are suffering with neck and lower back pain. Actually it happens on a daily basis. When I evaluate the patient and ask them what happened many times the patient will tell me that they "just woke up with the neck (or back) pain".

As I delve deeper into their history, inevitably, I find out that they were involved in a motor vehicle accident in the past, anywhere to 6 weeks ago, to well over 25 years ago. Now this is not the case every time, but it happens often enough that I felt the need to write about it, and help you learn about hidden injuries, and how to avoid unnecessary years of pain and suffering.

When a patient has been involved in a prior motor vehicle accident, one of two things happens. In the first scenario, the accident was intense enough that the injured party went to the hospital for an evaluation, or they saw a health care professional soon thereafter. Either way, the injuries the car accident victim sustained ultimately kept getting worse, and required some one to evaluate their injuries.

In the second scenario, the injured party felt that the accident they were in was fortunately not a major one, they were able to drive away afterwards, and aside from the minor aches and pains they experienced, they felt that they would get better on their own. Thus, they felt they didn’t necessary need a medical evaluation and/or any treatment.

In both cases, it is essential that the proper evaluation be done, no matter how minor the accident is. However, especially when the accident seems to be minor, because hidden injuries are sneaky and potentially debilitating, and are very likely to result in pain and suffering for many years to come, until one day, you go feel that you "just woke up in pain" for no reason.

Another factor to consider in years of pain and suffering is that of your insurance company. Many insurance adjusters are well aware of the injuries that accident victims experience in an accident. Unfortunately, they are aware that you may not feel injured right away and as a result, they try to come to a resolution as soon as possible, and settle as soon as possible before there are any medical bills whatsoever in order to minimize how much money the insurance company must pay out. For this reason alone, it is very important to have a health care specialist trained in finding any hidden injuries and have them evaluate you.

So what really happens with these hidden injuries, why are the not detected, and why do they lead to year of suffering? Well think about what kind of injuries you sustain in a car accident. If you do happen to go to the emergency room, and there are no broken bones, internal damages, or immediate threat to your life, then the injury is classified as a “soft tissue injury”. The emergency room physician is likely to send you along on your way with pain medication to help with the pain.

That may be ok in the beginning when your muscles and joints are inflamed, irritated, and in pain, but with these "soft tissue injuries" you also need a different remedy. Because the nature of a car accident is to stretch your muscles, ligaments, tendons and joints too far, these same soft tissues begin to function improperly. Scar tissue and adhesion begin to develop as well. This same scar tissue can then turn into its own source of pain, which then can cause a vast array of chronic pains, syndromes, and symptoms.

That is why these soft tissue injuries are considered to be hidden. They are not always visible on x-rays. Combined with the wrong diagnosis and only taking the medication to cover up and mask your symptoms, you begin to not feel injured anymore. With this type of treatment only gives you the illusion that you are okay.

Some of the symptoms that you may experience after an accident that may indicate you may have sustained these hidden soft tissue injuries are: difficulty concentrating, tiredness, memory loss, difficulty sleeping, neck and shoulder pain, muscle tension and stiffness, headaches, numbness and tingling, mid back pain, low back pain, irritability, and spasms. Worse yet, you may not be feeling any of these right now because your injury hasn’t started producing these symptoms yet.

If you have had a car accident in the past, no matter how long ago, and have felt any of the symptoms mentioned about, it is important to go for a proper evaluation by a health care professional that can find these hidden injuries. The sooner you find out that you have a hidden injury, the sooner that you can start a treatment plan to get you out of pain as soon as possible.

The great thing about seeing a chiropractor when you have been involved in a car accident is that we are trained to find these injuries. We use drug and surgery free methods to help auto accident victims to get out of pain as quickly as possible, by focusing on restoring the function and this soft tissue that we have talked about.