Chiropractor for Whiplash Orange County

Looking for an Orange County Chiropractor for your whiplash injury? Consider Dr Barry Marks, Chiropractor and car accident injury specialist in Orange.

Chiropractic is the Best Treatment for Whiplash Injuries

Many studies have been done over the years proving that neck and back injuries caused by automobile accidents respond best to chiropractic treatment. Because chiropractor pain relief treatment focuses on healing and restoring spinal joint function, it is getting to the root cause of whiplash pain. Medicines merely mask or cover up the pain leaving the joint injured and allowing it to deteriorate over time. And although physical therapy does work on movement of the muscles and joints, physical therapy does not address underlying biomechanical misalignment and malfunction making the treatment incomplete.

Did You Know There are Chiropractors Specializing in Car Accident Whiplash?

Many chiropractors treat whiplash, but there are a handful of chiropractors who have dedicated their professional lives to the specialty of whiplash and brain trauma. Like any other specialist, these doctors spend years in the classroom learning the intricate details of not only spinal trauma, brain injury, rehabilitation and other medical topics, but they also study forensic principles, legal issues, courtroom procedures, depositions and trials, admissibility of evidence and more to be fully capable of handling a case from first treatment all the way to providing expert witness testimony in court if needed. It is estimated that less than 10% of chiropractors actually specialize in whiplash through formal specialized training.

What to Expect When You See a Chiropractor for Whiplash?

Car Accident Paperwork

Like any professional, you will be asked to complete the usual demographic paperwork, but if you are seeing a car accident injury specialist, you will also complete forms asking about the details of your accident and how you felt immediately after and what you did following the accident. You will also be asked to fill out specialized questionnaires that are designed to determine what level of injury you have and its affect on your daily activities. These questionnaires are sued by specialists world-wide and document such complaints as stress caused by the collision, dizziness, headaches, sleep disruption, neck pain, back pain and others. The questionnaires are repeated after a period of treatment to assess your recovery. Objective forms like these are used by specialists to inform insurance companies, lawyers and juries that an injury did take place, how the injuries responded to treatment and if there are any residual or left over impairments in your daily activities.

Car Accident Examination

Once you have completed paperwork, your chiropractor will discuss the accident and your answers to questions before performing an examination. The examination of a traumatic injury needs to be thorough. It should encompass evaluating your muscles, bones, joints, nerves, brain, and motion. The exam should also include a specialized chiropractic spinal function exam to determine where any malfunctions are occurring in the spinal joints. The exam should be the equivalent of getting an examination by an orthopedic specialist, a neurologist as well as a chiropractor. It will take some time; you will be asked to move in certain positions, the doctor will touch (palpate), move various joints, push and pull on your body, and various other activities to find injured tissues. If your exam is a 5 minute touch here and there and hit your knee reflexes and then done, you have not had a proper examination. There is no short cuts in an auto accident injury exam, every possible injury must be looked for and if found, properly documented.

Car Accident X-rays

X-rays are mandatory after a car collision. Mandatory. Fractures and dislocations can occur, but are not common, but the reason x-rays are mandatory is that a whiplash expert will analyze your x-rays, take measurements and categorize the severity of your injury based on the findings. Many non-specialist doctors do not know the proper method of x-ray analysis and documentation that is acceptable in courts as evidence and often miss the opportunity to document a serious injury that requires specialized treatment and deserves a higher settlement.

Car Accident Spinal Motion Testing

Actual measurements of your spinal motion using an electronic device is a very good practice. Most medical doctors and chiropractors merely analyze motion by observation and make “guesstimates” of degrees of motion by eye. This is unacceptable. Motion analysis in this manner is easily defeated by insurance medical defense experts and will not carry any weight in a courtroom if it is even allowed into testimony. Objective verifiable data using accepted methods is the best procedure.

Car Accident Report of Finding and Recommendations

Once your exams and x-rays are completed, your specialist chiropractor should then sit down with you and explain all the findings, explain in common language what is wrong with you, what the severity is, what treatments are available and what your prospects for recovery are. Please note that at least half of all whiplash injuries involve some degree of permanent injury. Your chiropractic doctor must explain this to you fully. An agreement should then be made to commence treatment.

Treatment for Whiplash from a Car Accident

Many pages can be written on chiropractic treatment for whiplash injuries from a car accident. The basics are that any treatment given needs to be accepted by mainstream chiropractic standards, must be acceptable and defensible in court and must provide relief of treatment AND as much as possible repair or restore normal mechanics and function to the injured spine. There are scores of chiropractic “techniques” or systems of analysis and treatment. Many are well respected and acceptable in a car accident injury case. Some however, are not. This is not to delegitimize some chiropractic theories. Some theories of practice that are not well received by courts of law may well work, but you do not want to complicate your case by having to defend the use of controversial treatments when a car accident case is already an uphill battle. Again, this is where a specialist in auto accident trauma is your best bet because they will only use accepted forms of treatment. After your case you may return to your general chiropractor and pay for any treatments you feel comfortable with.

Treatment should include therapy modalities to relive pain, decrease inflammation and muscle spasm and promote healing. Heat, ice, electrical stimulation, ultrasound, cold laser are all modalities that are not only effective in relieving your condition, but also make the treatment more tolerable and relaxing. Exercises should be given immediately and the intensity of exercise should gradually increase throughout care. Of course the main treatment that separates chiropractic from all other forms of care and is the number one reason it is so successful is chiropractic spinal manipulation or adjustments. Gentle movements of your spinal joints by hand unlock stuck joints, give motion to areas that are lacking motion and stimulate the nerves to reduce pain. It may seem counter intuitive to have someone move your spine around when you are in pain, but a good chiropractor will be able to move your spine with little discomfort and restore motion when other methods cannot. Adjustments allow the spine to function more optimally which allows the body to heal. There may be times your chiropractor decides not to adjust based on your symptoms and exam findings, that is up to the individual doctor and he or she should have a compelling reason to avoid adjustments. Treatments will start out at multiple times per week then scale down as you improve. Total treatment duration for whiplash depends on many factors, but very mild injuries may be resolved in 1-2 months, moderate injuries in 3-6 months and more severe injuries can take a year or more.