Accidents are a fact of life. Not everyone follows road rules and even when they do, people make mistakes. The right doctors, focusing on orthopedics and spine care, specialize in treating victims of car accidents.
You never know when accidents will happen which makes it difficult to plan ahead and to prepare for such a life-changing event. Life is short enough without an accident ruining your plans, which is why you need to seek medical care immediately following one. Making an appointment needs to be done, even if you think you don’t have injuries. You need to get things checked out. If you’ll do it for your car, do it for yourself. Here’s why.
What Part of Your Body is Most Affected By a Car Accident?
Certain things happen in an accident. Sometimes you can’t see these things – like soft tissue damage. Soft tissue includes all of the parts of your body that aren’t made of bone or blood. They’re the muscles, ligaments, tendons, and cartilage that make you strong and flexible.
The number one casualty after an accident doesn’t involve your bones – it’s actually your soft tissue. Let’s say you are rear-ended. Your head flies back, hitting the headrest – then it flies forward, kinking your neck. Your head is heavy, and that impact creates micro-tears in your neck’s soft tissue. This happens when the vertebrae strike one another due to the spine’s sharp angle from the force of movement.
Discover Unseen Injuries with Orthopedics, Advanced Imaging, and Diagnostics
Now let’s say you opt out of the hospital. You take some days off from work to get better. But when you really get up to move again, you find that your injury is more pronounced than when you were first hurt. That’s the nature of soft tissue injury – it changes over time and is often difficult to locate in your body exactly. If left untreated, it not only sneaks up on you, it can morph into chronic pain that leaves you unable to do everything that you enjoy.
Even if you think you’re not hurt enough to see a doctor after your accident – you should make an appointment. See one of our Atlanta orthopedic doctors, as well as one who can handle soft tissue injuries. Make an appointment at an office with both chiropractic and orthopedic doctors. You’ll be assured of having the best levels of care for both your spinal injuries and your joint injuries. That’s because either one could emerge in your diagnosis.
Also, make sure they treat you with an X-ray and an MRI. When you see a doctor after an accident, they’ll typically give you an X-ray. Rarely will they give you an MRI. Because most accidents result in soft tissue injury, X-rays don’t see are unable to see them. However, an MRI can. Finding a reputable spinal specialist and orthopedist, with open MRI access as a standard of care, is worth gold when it comes to your health.
Those diagnostics also help with any legal claim you make after a car accident. Soft tissue injuries are difficult to prove in court, without some form of physical evidence. Just saying you feel pain is not enough. The evidence you need can be your MRI results.
Schedule An Appointment Today
AICA Orthopedics locations offer advanced imaging and other essential chiropractic and orthopedics. Our teams specialize in car accident injuries. Contact us at (404) 855-2141 to schedule an appointment.
