Although unfortunate, car accidents, if handled correctly, don’t have to be terribly stressful. I always make it a point during the examination to review the best way to move forward with a car accident claim.

First, it is always better to start a claim with your own insurance company regardless of whose fault it is. Your insurance company will usually take care of you much better than the insurance company for the other person(s) involved in the accident.

Secondly, if you weren’t charged in the accident, you don’t need to worry about your insurance rates going up. In this case, your insurance will see they are paid back (subrogation) by the liable party’s insurance company.

Thirdly, PIP (Personal Injury Protection) is something that either you agree to have or refuse it when starting with an insurance company. It is my recommendation to always have PIP coverage. In Washington State, PIP coverage starts at $10, 000 of medical coverage. It is also my recommendation that if you spend a lot of time in your car for work or travel, that your PIP coverage be higher than the minimum with the highest you can afford being the best option. Medical insurance, if you have coverage, will always step in if you don’t have PIP coverage. You will still have deductibles and co-pays to consider with this option. However, with PIP coverage there is no out-of-pocket cost to you up to your coverage limit. Even after you reach your coverage limit (if at all), there are still options to move forward without or minimal out-of-pocket costs. When coverage limits are met, I recommend my patients obtain legal representation with an attorney or legal firm that specializes in Personal Injury cases. I will recommend more than one attorney to contact and they will take the case from there and make sure all your medical bills are covered as well as other things that are still pending from the accident.

Lastly, I make sure patients understand that it is my goal to return them back to the state of health they were at prior to the car accident. I call that state, pre-accident state. Regardless of your health prior to the car accident and if it complicates your recovery, returning to that pre-accident state is my goal. There are many cases that have the patient return to a better state then prior to the car accident and there are small number of cases that unfortunately cannot restore a patient back to their pre-accident state. In these cases of disability or permanent outcomes, an attorney or legal firm is always the best way to proceed.

Car accident injuries can result from vehicular collisions and usually happen very suddenly and unexpectedly.

The most common injuries occurring in car accidents are:

Due to the impact of the car crash, you can sustain a wide variety of musculoskeletal injuries. Some car accident injuries are minor and may not need treatment, while others are severe and can threaten your life or bodily function. In any case, you need a thorough evaluation after a car accident injury to receive an accurate diagnosis.

At Integrated Chiropractic, I would provide an evaluation for recent and past car accident injuries. An injury from a car accident can cause long-term pain and immobility, even if it seems like it has had plenty of time to heal. Even if you don’t realize you have an injury at the time of the car accident, it can still benefit you to come in for an assessment.

During your assessment at Integrated Chiropractic, I perform a physical exam and might ask you to demonstrate a few movements. If a physical examination and a few simple tests don’t result in a conclusive diagnosis, imaging tests like X-rays are the next possibility. An imaging test shows bones and tissue inside the body that you cannot see with the naked eye.

Once I diagnose and evaluate your car accident injury’s severity, I can recommend treatments to improve function and restore the injured body part to its pre-accident state.

Treatment for car accident injuries at Integrated Chiropractic involves an integrative, whole-body approach. I create an individualized care plan for you that might include:

Home remedies can help make your recovery easier. They can include habit changes and activity modification, ice, heat, sleeping/standing/sitting improvements, or assistive devices like a cane or walker.

Kinesio taping uses specialized, patented tape to align and support car accident injuries as they heal.

I teach you corrective exercises to restore strength and function to the injured area.

Chiropractic care, including chiropractic instrument adjusting, aligns your spine and joints using your chiropractor’s hands or specially designed instruments. Proper alignment reduces inflammation and aids the healing process.

Myofascial (muscle and connective tissue) release is a type of massage therapy for pain. A licensed massage therapist at Integrated Chiropractic or recommended by me, finds the regions that are tight and painful before manually stretching them and applying gentle pressure to deep pressure to alleviate the built-up tension in the myofascia or soft tissues.

To schedule an appointment and learn more about treatments for your car accident injuries, call Integrated Chiropractic or send us a message from the Contact Us page.

I hope you learned something today.  Thanks for reading – and stay well.  Dr. SJ