Where there's smoke, there's fire is a term we use when we know if one act occurs, there is a good chance another act will follow. Clouds usually lead to rain, fall turns to winter and car accidents lead to damage to muscles, tendons, ligaments and bone. Many victims never realize that small, low impact, low car damage accidents cannot cause damage to your body. Nothing can be further from the truth. During an accident, your muscles will try to protect your body at the time of impact, within a split second by contracting to maintain the movement of the rest of your body. While this is a natural occurrence, it can cause damage to your body. When the muscles contract during impact, the force of the impact will stretch your muscles beyond their normal limit. This is called a strain. Don't be fooled by others telling you your strain is minor, or only a soft tissue injury. Strains can vary in severity and once you get a strain, it leads to a cascade effect on your body. Straining of a muscle will cause the body to repair itself by laying down scar tissue. Scar tissue is not our friend in this case. Scar tissue is not as elastic as regular, uninjured muscle tissue. When scar tissue develops, it is more taut and less pliable. This will lead to another event. Shortened muscles that are tight will not put the joint they support through a full range of motion. When a joint is not put through it's full range of motion, it will cause degeneration (arthritis) of the joint in as little as six months. Osteoarthritis can be diagnosed with an x-ray. When a joint in your spine degenerates, with time, the hole where your nerves exit the spine will decrease in size with a potential for nerve compression resulting in numbness, tingling and muscle weakness. Can you see how one event leads to another?
The reason why this is important in a car accident is that many people will ignore, or get wrong advice from the emergency room or primary care physician. Some advice is to take oral medication like a muscle relaxant and/or a pain reliever. These treatments may give immediate relief, but they are just sweeping dirt under the rug. If the injuries are physical in nature, there is only a physical solution. The person who is in a car accident needs to see someone who is a car accident specialist, someone who is a primary spinal care doctor. Primary spinal care doctors are the quarterback of the healthcare team. The primary spine care doctor has associations with neurologists, orthopedists and pain management doctors. In this regard, IF you need non-conservative care (which should be tried first) like surgery, injections or medication, we have associations with these doctors.
If you have been injured in a car accident, you should see a primary spine specialist. You can see my credentials here:
If you have been in a car accident and live in Chicago, Elmhurst, Berkeley, Bellwood, Northlake, Melrose Park, Stone Park, Oak Brook, Villa Park, Lombard, Bensenville, Addison or Westchester and have symptoms like headaches, whiplash, ringing in the ears, low back pain, spinal stenosis, disc herniations, shoulder pain, numbness and tingling in the arms or legs, call us, 24/7 at: Auto Accident Pain Relief Center of Illinois, 800-862-5914.
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