So you’ve been in an accident, now what?
Auto accidents are a huge disruptor to work and life – having to deal with insurance companies, attorneys, rental cars, auto repair shops. To make it worse, you suffer an injury that is keeping you from engaging in your chosen ADL’s (Activities of Daily Living): exercise, parenting, play, work, etc. Whether you are at fault or not, you still have to deal with the consequences. In this article, I hope to give you some guidelines on how can chiropractic help auto accident injuries, as well as give you a checklist of things to accomplish / people to call, to make sure you navigate the process with confidence.
Checklist of necessary steps when in an accident
- Call the police. No matter how “nice” the other party may seem, or how minor the accident may have been, if you let the other party leave the scene of an accident, without having the police file an accident report, you run the risk of having to cover the full expense of repairing your vehicle, as well as covering your health expenses. The police report will indicate who is at fault (usually the driver listed 1st on the report) even in a No-Fault state like Florida.
- Take pictures of EVERYTHING. Take pictures of the accident itself. Your vehicle from all angles, inside and out (if the airbags deployed). Take pictures of any bruising or seatbelt marks, cuts, and scrapes.
- Call your insurance carrier to file a claim. Your insurance company is responsible for your medical coverage (PIP or Personal Injury Protection) from an accident.
- Find a subluxation based chiropractor and get examined within 1 week of the accident. Identifying and correcting traumatic injuries to the spine early, ensures that you stand the greatest chance of getting back to pre-accident status. Plus, there are time limitations to when you can file a claim and get access to your benefits: wait too long and you may not have the opportunity to seek health care.
- Hire an attorney (even if you don’t intend on suing anyone). Attorneys are there to fight for you. The insurance carriers have attorneys on their side fighting for their best interests. Say the wrong thing to an adjuster on the phone, and you could have your benefits terminated. By hiring an attorney, the insurance adjuster cannot speak to you directly. Plus, having an attorney in your corner, usually improves the chances of you getting the care you need, for the time you need it, to recover.
Choosing the right chiropractic office: Subluxation based vs. Pain based
You can always choose to go to a pain based, PIP chiropractic office. Just know that very rarely do they adjust the spine. They tend to focus on physical therapy (ice / heat, massage, muscle stim) and medical interventions (orthopedic injections, pain medications). There is a greater emphasis on pain relief, not functional restoration and healing. Transparency maintains friendships: if you are looking for a financial payday, stick with a PI office.Sometimes the attorney’s don’t necessarily want you to get better: there is no money in a case where the person heals from their injuries… but that is their problem. My responsibility is to your health, not your case.
Or…. you can choose a subluxation based office to receive care. In our office, we care for health and wellness issues primarily, with just a few injury cases. However, whether you are an injury case or a health and wellness case, the approach is the same: identify subluxations of the spine, adjust where those subluxations are, let the body heal itself.
We manage your injury case just we would a health and wellness case appropriately (examination, documentation, co-professional management with orthopedic or any other necessary medical provider). The difference is our purpose: we are going to help get you to return to as close to pre-injury status as possible, in the time frame necessary.
So how can chiropractic help auto accident injuries?
Subluxation based Chiropractors do so by aligning your spine where it is subluxated and weak due to trauma.
We maintain the spine in alignment long enough for the innate intelligence of the body to restore stability and structural / neurological integrity.
You have an innate healing ability. When alignment and curves are restored, the brain – body connection gets stronger. This allows the body to regain health through proper function. Check out this case study.