How Chiropractors Treat Neck Pain After a Car Accident

Is neck pain normal after a car accident? Neck pain is the most common type of injury in car accident victims. About three million people in America sustain neck injuries every year from car accidents.

While you may think you have a mild case of neck pain, it may be an early warning sign of a serious injury. You may have sustained a whiplash injury, disc damage, or a fracture in your cervical spine.

If you are experiencing neck pain after a car crash, you should visit an auto injury chiropractor. Chiropractic treatment can treat your neck pain and allow you to resume your normal life again.

What Can a Chiropractor Do to Treat Neck Pain After a Car Accident?

A chiropractor can gently fine-tune your spine, the neck, and muscles that have sustained injuries and are causing you discomfort. Here is what a chiropractor can do to help with your neck pain after a car crash.

Cervical Manipulation

Your chiropractor will do a gentle cervical manipulation to bring back flexibility to your neck’s joints. Here, the chiropractor will identify the neck joints partially dislocated or out of place.

Then, using gentle pushes, the chiropractor will stretch your muscles and revive your nervous system. The nervous system consists of the brain, nerves, and spinal cord. Chiropractic care helps release tension and restore flexibility in the spine.

Therapeutic Massages

Your chiropractor may use massage therapy to ease stiffness, swelling, and pain in your neck muscles. This may include trigger point massages to relax tense and painful points on your neck muscles. Massage therapy may also include deep tissue massages. The chiropractor rubs and applies gentle pressure on your neck muscles to ease tightness and restore flexibility.

Spinal Decompression

Spinal decompression can relieve your neck pain. This treatment method uses gentle stretches to relax your spine and relieve compression on your spinal nerves. The impact of a car accident can force your cervical spine to jolt out of position.

But the gentle stretches can move your spine back to its proper position and relieve your neck pain. That way, your neck will feel less painful and move more naturally. As you continue the treatment, spinal decompression will strengthen your neck muscles and stabilize your neck over time.

Ultrasound Therapy

Ultrasound therapy uses sound waves to stir your neck tissues. The sound waves go deep into your neck muscles, generating a gentle heat. What this heat eventually does is reduce swelling in the injured tissues and accelerate blood flow to the neck tissues.

By increasing the flow of blood to the injured neck tissues, the treatment alleviates muscle twinges, inflammation, stiffness, cramping, and pain. If chiropractic care is not helping, surgery may be the only relief for your neck pain. Your doctor will work with you to decide what is best for your situation.

For more on how chiropractors treat neck pain after a car accident, visit Brookdale Health at our office in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. You can also call (763) 561-4045 to schedule an appointment today.