Auto Accident: How to Deal With Soreness and Pain

If you are suffering from pain after a car accident, you want to know what you can do to recover as quickly and fully as possible. Chiropractic care and physiotherapy offer alternative healthcare options for those suffering from soreness and pain.

A chiropractor can help with your recovery following a car accident, but pain and soreness can be tricky. Our auto accident doctor can explain what helps sore muscles after a car accident. They can teach how to treat muscle pain after a car accident and help you to restore strength, flexibility, and independence.

Do I Need Medical Treatment After a Car Accident?

There’s always the chance of getting into an auto accident when you use the busy roads and highways in Florida. Whether you live on the East Coast and are driving to work on I-75 or cruising A1A on the weekend, the unexpected could happen, and you could find yourself the victim of an auto accident.

Thankfully, most auto accident victims in Florida survive their experiences with little to no soft tissue injuries. However, some victims are not so fortunate and suffer from severe injuries. Even after your primary care physician has cleared you, there’s the possibility that you may continue to suffer from car accident body pain.

You May Not Feel Anything Until the Next Day

Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (FLHSMV) reported over 250,000 injury crashes in 2022. Many people often do not see a doctor after an auto accident because they do not feel any pain or see any injuries. However, it is important to remember that the absence of physical injuries does not mean you won’t deal with pain and soreness after a car crash.

Adrenaline May Be Masking Your Injuries

Our bodies have a defense mechanism that deploys when we are in danger. Usually, the body releases adrenaline. Adrenaline is a hormone that frequently masks the pain we should feel when we are in a heightened state of danger. We become more alert, our heart starts beating faster, and our pain receptors become less sensitive. Unfortunately, adrenaline will wear off, so it will not hide the pain forever. You may feel aches shortly after an auto accident.

Seeing a medical professional can help you detect potentially serious injuries, enabling you to treat them on time. They can perform a full examination with imaging, such as MRIs, CT scans, and X-rays, to identify underlying issues and obscured conditions. However, this is not all you gain from seeing a medical professional early. You get to build a trail of evidence that could be valuable if you decide to pursue a personal injury case.

Our Doctors Explain How to Treat Sore Muscles After an Auto Accident

So, you’ve been in an accident and fortunately sustained no severe injuries. However, your muscles ache or are sore, and you are in chronic pain. How can you get some relief? Our auto accident doctors, chiropractic assistants, and physical therapy specialists can provide you with some answers:

See a Doctor Immediately After the Auto Accident

Seeing a doctor should always be your priority after an accident. Sometimes, muscle pain and soreness are standalone effects of a crash. However, in some cases, they could indicate something more serious. The only way to be certain is to go to the emergency room or schedule a visit to your primary care doctor as soon as possible.

To get an accurate diagnosis, a doctor will put you through a few tests, including an X-ray, computed tomography (CT scan), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Consequently, treatment may be prescribed depending on your test results. Always follow the treatment recommended by your doctor to get the maximum benefits.

Receiving prompt medical care also aids in connecting your injuries to the accident, which will be important when you file a personal injury claim.

Your Body Will Need Rest to Recover

The benefits of rest don’t just apply when you’re tired or stressed. Rest is a vital tool for healing, and your soreness or pain is not an exception. Get as much rest as possible in the days following your accident. There’s no specific duration for how long you should relax, so pay attention to how you feel.

If you are concerned about how long you should rest, you can speak to a doctor to get an idea. Remember, it’s crucial that you relax during your recovery period. Not many people enjoy being idle, but your body needs it.

Don’t do anything that could stress your muscles and worsen your injuries. Requesting to take time off of work is a good idea. An essential part of rest has to do with your sleep. Therefore, ensure you always get adequate sleep. Since you may be in pain, work with a chiropractor to determine the best way to sleep.

Drink Lots of Water and Stay Well Hydrated

We understand how vital water is to our digestion. However, staying hydrated can also give your muscles the time to heal. When you don’t drink enough water, your muscles do not get the electrolytes needed to function optimally. This deficiency could lead to a loss of strength.

The synovial fluid helps to lubricate your joints, allowing for easy movement. Water is an important component of the synovial fluid, and not getting enough water could be detrimental to your recovery. Finally, drinking water helps to speed up your recovery time by flushing toxins and poisons from your system and aid in cellular function.

Eat a Healthy Diet to Replenish Nutrients

What you eat impacts your health, and muscle pain or soreness is not an exception. While you recover, eat a nutritious diet filled with plenty of vitamins and protein to help repair damaged tissue.

Eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, and try to stay away from unhealthy food until after you’ve fully recovered. No single food will make you recover, so you should eat a well-balanced diet.

Physical Therapy Can Improve Strength and Flexibility

You can engage in physical therapy at any point in the healing process. It can also be a standalone option or supported by other treatments. When you visit a physical therapist, they will conduct a physical examination to evaluate your condition.

Based on their diagnosis results, they will give a prognosis and a treatment plan, often subject to your acceptance. They could also prescribe exercises for you to perform at home in addition to physical therapy. In some cases, they may define a diet plan that you should follow.

Common physical therapy techniques include:

Stretching and strength training: Your physiotherapist can teach you different types of stretching exercises to alleviate muscle soreness after a car crash.
Electrical muscle stimulation (E-STIM): During E-STIM, your provider will use a small device to send electric pulses to the site of your soreness. This can help address your pain and any inflammation.
Rehabilitative therapy: Rehabilitation can help improve your range of motion after a car accident. It is also often used to rebuild your muscle strength if you need a lot of downtime after the accident.
Ultrasound therapy: This type of therapy sends sound waves to your muscle tissue to provide gentle relief and encourage blood flow to the area.

Chiropractic Care Can Realign Your Spine and Joints

During your examination, your doctors may find that the cause of your soreness and pain is a spinal injury or misaligned joint. Chiropractors can apply a variety of treatment options to adjust back, neck, and shoulder joints to alleviate pain, reduce swelling and inflammation, increase circulation, and encourage the body to heal itself. Such treatment options include:

Diversified adjustments: Short, quick thrust to joints in the spine
Thompson drop-table technique: A segmented table used to diagnose and treat spinal misalignments
Manual extremities: Techniques to treat joints other than the spine
Sacral-occipital technique: Improving the alignment between the head, pelvis, and spine

Your chiropractor may also use an activator to make more precise, low-impact adjustments.

Massage Therapy Helps Relax the Body

Massage therapy is another option that can help you get some relief from pain symptoms. This could be deep tissue massage, stone therapy, or general massage. Ensure that you inform your massage therapist of your accident so that they do not do anything that could worsen the injuries.

There has been debate on the effectiveness of massage in treating injuries. Still, research suggests that massage speeds up muscle healing by addressing inflammation and promoting circulation to the affected area.

Yoga Provides an Alternative Option

The practice of yoga has grown significantly in recent times. Although it originated in India and some parts of the Middle East, it is now a widespread phenomenon adopted by people worldwide. For most people, yoga is used for meditation, but that’s not the only benefit derived from it.

Yoga has been used by people looking to correct their breathing and posture. It can also be helpful for those with muscle aches. Some yoga practices involve stretching the muscles and can be used to heal injured muscles and speed up injury recovery time.

[custom_buttons]

Common Injuries That Could Lead to Muscle Soreness and Pain After an Auto Accident

Living with the soreness and pain that often follows a car accident is frustrating. Until you know what type of accident injury you’re suffering from, it’s difficult to understand how to treat your condition and how long your symptoms will last.

Depending on the type of accident you were involved in, you could be dealing with one of these common car accident injuries:

Whiplash

Whiplash happens when your head whips back and forth in a car accident. While generally caused by rear-end collisions, whiplash can be the result of any type of crash.

This type of injury is known to lead to muscle soreness. Your neck might also be stiff and painful to move. You may benefit from chiropractic or physical therapy treatment to address your whiplash injury symptoms.

Muscle Sprains and Strains

You could experience a muscle strain in any part of your body following a car accident. This type of injury can cause a range of other problems, such as weakness, pain, swelling, and limited movement. While some patients can treat a muscle sprain at home, others may benefit from regular physical therapy to speed healing.

Back Injuries

Back pain can arise from tight muscles, spinal fractures, and a range of other injuries. If you experience back pain, you should see a doctor as soon as possible. Back injuries are serious, and they can lead to prolonged soreness and pain if left untreated. Depending on your injury, your doctor might prescribe massage therapy, chiropractic care, or physiotherapy techniques like stretching.

Get Help From Specific Care Chiropractic Today

You should always get a medical diagnosis after an auto accident. You should not make any assumptions about your health. Any delay could lead to worse conditions that could have been avoided. It is in your best interest to seek medical help as soon as possible.

Our healthcare services at Specific Care Chiropractic emphasize a holistic approach to treating your injuries and pain. We offer personalized care tailored to your condition.