Your Guide to Headaches After an Auto Accident
If you were involved in a car accident, emergency personnel might have checked you out and said that everything is fine. You went home, expecting to be a little sore but otherwise unscathed. Suddenly – seemingly out of nowhere – you start experiencing headaches. This is a very common situation, as musculoskeletal injuries are common during accidents. Below, our team at Aim High Health in Denver, Aurora, and Wheat Ridge explains where these headaches come from and how to treat them.
Why Do I Have a Headache?
The human body sustains a great deal of force during an auto accident – especially the neck. When a collision occurs, the neck is forcefully moved back and forth, beyond its normal range of motion. This causes small tears in the soft tissues, which leads to headaches, neck stiffness, and more. The injury is known as whiplash, and it’s one of the most common car accident injuries.
Other common causes of headaches are herniated discs, pinched nerves, and muscle strains. Often, these are masked beneath the symptoms of whiplash, as whiplash causes a great deal of stiffness and inflammation. It can be difficult to detect other injuries until the soft tissues heal.
How Could Emergency Personnel Miss It?
Once you realize that there is an injury, you might be wondering how it could have been overlooked at the hospital or by the EMTs. Emergency personnel are trained to spot life-threatening injuries, so it’s not unusual that they don’t detect others. Additionally, it can take days, weeks, or longer for symptoms to appear. This is why they instruct you to schedule a follow-up visit with your care provider to get a full check-up.
How to Treat Headaches After a Car Accident
The first step is to schedule a chiropractic appointment with your car accident chiropractor. They’ll complete a full assessment of your musculoskeletal system in order to detect any issues – even those you don’t yet feel the symptoms of.
From there, a personalized chiropractic treatment plan can be developed. Typically, this will include adjustments, soft tissue therapy, decompression therapy, therapeutic exercises, and more to ensure optimal recovery.
Find Relief at Aim High Health
If you’ve been in an auto accident – even if you don’t yet feel any pain – visit our team at Aim High Health for a full musculoskeletal assessment and customized plan of care. Are you looking for a chiropractor near you? You can reach our Denver office at (303) 922-2977, our Aurora office at (303) 577-2040, or our Wheat Ridge office at (303) 423-1925.
