Innova Pain Clinic
Ignoring whiplash is a costly mistake
Whiplash injuries suffered from an auto accident can show up immediately or can take some time to become apparent. I have seen many patients with chronic neck pain years following their untreated whiplash injury. Commonly the patient will say something like, “I had a car crash 2 years ago. I felt fine at the time so I did not get any treatments for my neck.”
It is important to seek treatment for injuries from an auto accident as soon as possible. A chiropractor such as Dr. Andrew White in St George, UT can treat many types of pain associated with collisions. Our treatment protocols include physiotherapy such as electrical muscle stim and ultrasound, muscle rehabilitation, and HVLA manipulation techniques.
Next time you see someone rubbing their sore neck, think about the tissues under the skin. There are muscles, ligaments, tendons, fascia, and joint capsules just to name a few. Each of those structures can be injured in a car crash. They need to be treated as well. Just because the hospital said you were fine after your accident, that doesn’t mean that there was no damage. “Fine” in the ER/hospital dictionary means, “you won’t bleed to death in the next 10 minutes.”
Think of scar tissue as a spider-web with silky cables reaching out and attaching to your soft tissues (muscles, ligaments, tendons, fascia, and joint capsules). Unlike a regular spider-web, where the silk filaments can stretch, scar tissue does not stretch well. In fact, it is contractile–it shrinks! What happens if one of those scar fibers latched onto your nerves started to shrink? It will pull and tug on that nerve. The result: nerve pain, numbness, weakness, pins and needle sensations.
If someone you know has been in an accident, even a minor one, they need to be evaluated by a chiropractor who is experienced in handling the complicated bodily damage as well as the paper-work of a personal injury case. Dr Andrew White at the Innova Pain Clinic is that type of doctor. He has been successfully treating whiplash and auto injury cases since 1995.
Almost all auto accident cases will not cost the patient any out-of-pocket expense. Utah has a special type of auto insurance called PIP. It is already built into your car insurance. You have this protection in place. Use it. It will automatically pay for your examination by Dr. Andrew White. As the patient, you will have very little paper work to do.
Compare a normal (left) neck x-ray with the whiplsh neck (right). The person on the right suffered a whiplash injury and never saw a chiropractor to get it corrected. Note the chronic injury to the discs and joints.