I've had an accident - should I see an accident chiropractor?After even a minor accident, Chiropractors (an accident chiropractor or just your neighborhood chiropractor) can help a lot with your whiplash and can go a long way in helping you towards recovery. (Read below about ribs - they don't all take care of these!) Having your neck thrown back is an incredibly forceful jolt to your spine and repeated trips to the chiropractor are often necessary to take care of it. The sooner you can get to a chiropractor, the better! Otherwise your body starts adapting around the injury and it may take longer to move it back to it’s optimal position! What to Ask For From Your Chiropractor I’m sure you’ve seen signs outside of some chiropractor offices saying that they specialize in accidents. There are many types of specialties within chiropractic, and the accident Chiropractor is aware of and continually learns about what can happen to your body’s structure after an accident. The two main things for you to consider are: 1. Does this chiropractor understand whiplash? 2. Does this chiropractor understand what happens to ribs during an accident? Ribs & Accidents We pretty much all know about whiplash after accidents. What we don’t hear about often is about ribs getting out of place. Next time you get in your car and buckle your seatbelt, notice where your seatbelt wraps around your body. If you are in the driver seat, it goes under your right ribs. Now imagine an impact. Your body moves forward. The seatbelt tightens up. It holds your body right where your ribs are, preventing them from moving with the rest of your body, and essentially ‘lifting’ them. This creates a crooked rib cage where your right side is higher than your left. It only takes an impact of 7 mph to adjust your ribs this way! This would mean that your car is just rolling, without you even pressing on the gas! The tricky part is that most people are concerned about whiplash and don’t think about their ribs! And, of course, your body will adjust to it. The problem is that ribs being out of place often constrict your breathing. This can take awhile to show up. It may even show up months later and seem completely unrelated to anything. Perhaps you get checked for have asthma. Some people see a doctor for asthma and are told that they have anxiety. (Well, if your breathing is constricted, of course you feel anxiety!!) But, truly, it may also be your ribs being out of place. It is an often overlooked aspect of accident related injuries. It's even overlooked by chiropractors! So be sure to have it checked out by a chiropractor who is familiar with rib adjustments. (Not all of them are!) It might be in your best interest, even if you have a regular chiropractor, to take a visit to an accident chiropractor who specializes in these kinds of injuries... just to be sure!
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