What to do when you’ve been in a car accident (+whiplash exercises)
Often times people will experience back, neck, and shoulder pain after an accident, but they don't know where to turn. In the video below I talk about the basics of what you should do after you've been in a car accident.
1/ Report the accident to ICBC.
After an accident, you are entitled to up to 25 chiropractic visits in the first 12 weeks after the accident, regardless of who is at fault. You don’t need approval from your adjuster or a referral from your family doctor. If it has been longer than 12 weeks, we can call your adjuster and have them approve the treatment.
2/ See your chiropractor as soon as possible.
It’s important to see your chiropractor as soon as possible, ideally within a week or 2 of the accident. Sometimes people think they should wait for their symptoms to calm down, but after treating hundreds of car accident patients over the last 17 years, I can say quite confidently that the earlier you seek out treatment, the earlier you recover.
Some of you might be quite sore after an accident, but I always remind my patients we have a very large tool bag to be able to help you and we can always start with some very light treatment to at least get the ball rolling towards your recovery.
3/ Get a thorough evaluation.
Before we get started on treatment, it is important to receive a thorough evaluation. We start out with sitting down and getting a good understanding of what happened in the accident, what symptoms you are experiencing, and how those symptoms have changed since the accident first happened. We then do a thorough physical exam to find the sources of your pain. Only then can we decide on the best treatment strategy.
4/ Keep active.
This applies to almost all injuries, but after an accident it is really important to keep mobile and keep active. Just like early treatment, we find our patients that are able to get moving as quickly as possible, tend to recover from their injuries quicker. This doesn’t mean that this is going to be the right time for a personal best at the gym or on a run, but some walking, some light resistance training is perfect to get you back to do the things you love to do as soon as possible.
If you've been in a car accident, feel free to reach out to our office, we'll be happy to see you as soon as possible, and get you started as quickly as possible on your path to recovery.
Whiplash Exercises to do at Home
If you've injured your neck in car accident, a fall or a sports injury you may have something called whiplash. To speed up recovery and calm down some of the pain, watch the video below for four exercises that you can do in the early stages of recovering from whiplash:
When doing these exercises it is important to remember that you should only move in a pain-free range of motion. If an exercise is too painful to perform, then skip the exercise. The first two weeks after a whiplash injury is when there is the most inflammation and pain within the body.
Exercises:
Pain-free neck range of motion: Make sure to hit all the motions in the neck without pain and repeat the sequence 3-5 times
Shoulder rolls: Make sure to perform gentle, small movements and repeat the rolls forward and backward 5 times
Towel-assisted chin retractions: In this exercise, you will gently push your chin towards the towel and then relax. This helps to create the natural curve of the neck while creating movement within the neck.
