Auto Accident Chiropractor

After an automobile accident, many people look for chiropractic help in Brookfield WI, New Berlin WI, or Williams Bay WI. In many car accident cases, whiplash, when your head and neck are violently swung back and forth, is endured. Most automobile accidents result in being hit from behind which often leads to whiplash. Not only can automobile accidents can cause whiplash, but also trauma, abuse, and falls.

According to the CDC, neck and back injuries are the most commonly reported problems following an auto accident. Whiplash,” as it is commonly called, costs accident victims more than $8.8 billion per year, not to mention a lifetime of suffering.

Whiplash

Whiplash is an injury caused by the head, neck, and back whipping forward and backward or side to side during a collision. When an accident like this occurs, people suffer from what is called a subluxation. Essentially, what happens is the force of the accident causes a bone or multiple bones in the victim’s spine to move out of alignment and stretches the muscles and ligaments around it. A subluxation irritates and puts pressure on the nerves exiting the spine, causing muscle spasms, pain, and, most importantly, decreased function of the body.

Most people understand how an accident with enough force to crumple the metal on a car has the potential to move something out of place in their spine. What they don’t know is that less violent accidents can cause equally severe problems. In fact, cars are meant to crumple so the forces of an accident can be absorbed by the vehicle, rather than the passengers – when there is no damage to the car, it means the passengers have absorbed all the forces of the accident. Research published by Yale University tells us that any accident occurring at just 8.2 miles per hour or more creates enough force to injure a passenger and occurs so quickly that it is physically impossible for the human nervous system to react fast enough to prevent injury.

Symptoms of Whiplash

Unfortunately, symptoms of such traumas do not always appear immediately after an accident. Symptoms can appear days to weeks to years later, long after emergency responders or hospitals have released a victim. Chiropractors specialize in detecting and correcting or adjusting subluxations, and most hospitals do not have chiropractors readily available in their emergency rooms. So what happens? The subluxations go uncorrected. When subluxations are left uncared for, these biomechanical changes begin to degenerate and cause decreased function of the nervous system and the body, even if a person has absolutely no painful symptoms. It is vital that victims are checked for subluxations by a chiropractor immediately after an auto accident, whether or not the victim is experiencing any symptoms. If you or someone you love has been in an auto accident, please call any of our offices and get checked for any hidden problems before they begin to take a toll on your health.