Accidents happen, and when they do it’s important to get the right treatment. After an automobile accident, slip & fall, or workplace injury many people may go to their primary care doctor or hospital emergency room. Medical care from these practices usually includes prescription medication if the injuries seem to be minor. And possibly surgery if the injuries are severe. Sometimes, people shrug off the accident as something minor, only for problems to become unavoidable a few months or years later.
There are times when medication and/or surgery are appropriate. Pain medication often treats the symptoms of a problem … pain. When you take pain medication, whether it’s prescribed or over-the counter, it reduces the intensity of pain so that you can perform activities of daily living that may have been affected by your injury.
Pain is your body’s way of telling you to slow down or stop whatever you are doing to prevent irreversible damage. When you mask this natural reflex, you can set yourself up for more problems. Pain medication does not treat what is causing your pain. In addition, many medications, over-the-counter and prescriptions, have side effects and can be addicting. If you have been seriously injured or have been injured before, you may be on pain medication for a long time.
If you don’t have pain that affects your every day life, and you think the accident wasn’t that big of a deal, you should still be seen by a Chiropractic Doctor.
Why see a Chiropractic Doctor if I’ve been in an accident?
Chiropractors are an smart choice when it comes to providing medical care after an injury. At your first visit, your injuries and medical history will be discussed between you and Dr. DelMonte. A treatment plan will be developed specifically for you, all designed with the goal of helping you get back to your lifestyle as quickly as possible.
The body has an incredible ability to heal. A Chiropractic Doctor works with the muscukoskeletal system and the nervous system to help you recover from your injuries. Many accidents also result in injuries to different structures in the spine (the vertebrae, discs, liagments, and nerves). This is what can causes tremendous pain and limit your ability to function like you could before your accident.
Chiropractic treatment is provided to each patient in a way that is unique to them. Dr. DelMonte may use her hands or a chiropractic instrument to provide chiropractic treatment. Physical therapy will also be included in your treatment plan, ranging from electrical stimulation that helps reduce pain and inflammation to rehabilitative exercises designed to help restore function and movement.
Why should I see a Chiropractic Doctor if I don’t have any pain?
Because of our anatomy and the way our nervous system works, pain is the last symptom to appear. This means that if you have a high pain tolerance or feel like thyour accident was very minor, you could have problems that take years to develop. By then, it’s too late to treat. For one, the law won’t wait 10 years or more for you to report an accident that has caused your pain. And the sooner you treat tissues that have been injured, the faster and better they heal, with less scarring.
Pain is also the first symptom to disappear. That means, when you are in treatment for an accident, you will start to feel better and better, and wonder why you are still coming in for treatment. This is because your doctor, with the help of re-examinations, X-rays, MRI’s and other diagnostic testing, knows that your problem isn’t quite yet fixed. Patients often end treatment too quickly, only for their injuries to flare up. Once your doctor determines that you have reached what is known as Maximum Medical Improvement, will you be discharged from your treatment plan. This is the standard of care and sets you up for the best possible recovery so that you can get back to doing the things you enjoy most.
What happens after treatment for my injuries?
After a treatment plan has ended and the patient has been discharged, our patients tell us that their pain is much less and they are back to their lifestyle, but every now and then things hurt a little bit again. This is very common after having a musculosekeltal injury. After a patient has been discharged from their treatment plan, we are here to provide our patients with care so that they don’t lose the ground they gained. This is called the maintenance phase of care and not much different from going to the dentist twice a year to make sure your teeth are healthy, we recommend that our patients check in with us every now and then. How often depends on the patient’s injuries and lifestyle.
The training of a Chiropractic Doctor is comprehensive. With more than 5,000 hours of training and thousands more after graduation, we are able to recognize potential problems as they begin to develop. Part of your chiropractic treatment includes neurological and orthopedic testing, evaluating how you move and how you respond to treatment. It’s no mistake that people who receive regular chiropractic care feel better and are more active than people who don’t. Rehabilitation is the standard of care for someone who has been in an accident. Prehabilitation is the conditioning of a body that helps to reduce the severity of an injury and recover faster when you do have an accident.
If you’ve been injured, Dr. DelMonte can help you get the care you need to start feeling better. Book your appointment online today.