car accidents – Page 2

Auto Accidents Can Spell Trouble at Any Speed

July 12, 2016 oblanderchiropractic

When we hear the words “car accident,” many of us probably think about dramatic multi-vehicle, highway-speed collisions that involve lots of victims and first responders—firefighters, police officers, EMTs and perhaps even helicopter pilots. These are the types of automobile-related accidents that can snarl traffic for miles and make the evening news. However, these are NOT necessarily the types of accidents that cause the largest numbers of injuries. To understand these, you’d have to look at the other end of the spectrum—high-frequency, low-intensity accidents. Here’s what we’re talking about:

Stationary or Parked Car Accidents. Perhaps the most frequent injury involving automobiles comes from closing the door. Nearly 150,000 times a year, someone is injured in this fashion, and the car isn’t even moving. This includes doors closing on fingers. Another 10,000 are injured while using a jack and 74,000 are injured by a car or car part falling on them.

Vehicle-on-Pedestrian or Vehicle-on-Bicyclist Accidents. Roughly one-third of auto-related injuries occur due to an automobile striking someone, particularly pedestrians and bicyclists. The damage can include anything from simple scrapes and bruises to multiple broken bones or internal injuries.

Non-Traffic Crashes and Non-Crash Incidents. A Forbes magazine article noted that researchers from the US Department of Transportation “estimated an annual total of 1,747 fatalities and 841,000 injuries due to non-traffic crashes and non-crash incidents.” These included back-overs and single-car collisions that don’t happen on a highway.

Perhaps one of the most important things to understand about auto accidents is that you don’t need to be traveling fast to be hurt. In fact, even low-speed accidents can cause musculoskeletal injuries. This is especially true in cases where the vehicle’s body doesn’t flex or crumple to absorb the energy of the impact and that energy is instead transmitted to the occupants inside. And—while modern safety equipment certainly helps prevent many serious or fatal injuries—minor to moderate injuries are still very, very common.

It’s all about physics. During a collision, the driver and passengers can be thrown about within the vehicle, potentially causing significant injuries from rapid acceleration and deceleration as well as impacts. Head, neck and back injuries are among the most common. However, low-speed accidents can be particularly problematic because victims often don’t immediately recognize that they’ve been hurt. After these sorts of collisions, many simply walk away from the event without going to a qualified healthcare provider for a prompt medical evaluation. And since it is very common for symptoms to appear days, weeks or even months afterward, diagnosis and treatment of musculoskeletal injuries can be significantly delayed, potentially complicating—and lengthening—the recovery process.

Have you or someone you care about been involved in an auto accident? If so, your chiropractic physician is specially trained to recognize the kinds of spinal and soft tissue injuries associated with automobile accidents of all types. Based on a careful assessment, he or she can design a treatment plan to help you recover as quickly and completely as possible. As experts in diagnosing and treating injuries that affect the musculoskeletal and nervous systems, chiropractors can offer a broad range of treatment options to relieve pain and restore function. These include chiropractic manipulation and mobilization, traction, massage, low-level laser and hot and cold pack therapies as well as structured exercise and stretching programs.

Auto accidents can be challenging for victims in many different ways—physically, emotionally and financially. The goal of our clinic is to accelerate the body’s healing process so that you can return to a productive, active lifestyle. We’re here to help—call or visit our office to learn more.

What You Should Know About Recovering from Auto Injuries

May 10, 2016 oblanderchiropractic

ambulance-200-300 America’s roads have become far safer across the past three decades. By just about any measure, travelers are much less likely to be injured or killed in a motor vehicle accident than they were in the late 1980s and early 1990s. And this is true even though we’re driving more miles each year!

However, automobile accidents are still notoriously hard on the musculoskeletal system, and there is still a very real risk of back and neck injuries—even when drivers and passengers are protected by the latest safety equipment. In fact, recent research suggests that some types of injuries—particularly to the thoracic and lumbar regions of the back—may actually be more likely when safety belts are used. There is also some evidence that airbags may contribute to more severe neck injuries when they deploy.

At the same time, other developments are also changing the nature of auto injuries. For instance:

Smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles are good for the environment, but they pose additional risks to their passengers when they collide with larger cars, SUVs and trucks.
Lifestyle and demographic trends are resulting in greater numbers of overweight and obese people on the roads as well as larger numbers of seniors, who tend to have frames that are smaller and more fragile.

So even though the overall fatality rate and the rate of serious injuries should continue to fall as safety systems continue to improve, minor to moderate injuries from auto accidents will continue to be a fact of life for the foreseeable future.

What You Need to Know

Even in cases where drivers and passengers walk away from a wreck believing they’re “uninjured”, accidents can have profound, long-lasting health consequences for those involved. It’s not uncommon for some types of symptoms to appear only gradually days or weeks after the event itself, delaying effective diagnosis and treatment. Symptoms may also come and go intermittently, making it more difficult to associate them with the accident.

Fortunately, there are things you can do to safeguard your health and improve your chances of a more rapid, complete recovery following an auto accident. Clinical studies have demonstrated that chiropractic care can shorten recovery time and decrease the amount of permanent physical damage sustained in a collision.

Take care of first things first. Always address any life-threatening injuries first. If you experience (or have reason to suspect) significant bleeding or bruising, broken bones, internal pain, difficulty breathing, loss of consciousness, or shock, you should seek immediate help from healthcare professionals who specialize in treating trauma injuries.
Visit your chiropractor as soon as possible after an accident. Do this even if you don’t think you’ve been hurt very badly. Research has shown that early intervention in the form of chiropractic adjustment, massage, laser therapy and supervised exercise and stretching programs can make a big difference in longer-term function.
Stay as active as you can throughout your recovery. Activity encourages blood flow to the injured area and promotes healing. It also helps prevent or reduce scar tissue formation and maintain range of motion.
Strengthen the affected area(s) as directed. Exercise and stretching programs are designed to help prevent future injuries and are an important part of a balanced treatment plan.
Recognize that you may be at increased risk of developing chronic problems. Be sure to tell your doctor if any of the following warning signs apply:
A prior history of back, neck or shoulder problems (including previous injury).
Distinct numbness, tingling or pain immediately following an accident.
Increased muscle tension or reduced range of motion after the crash.
You were involved in a rear-end collision.
Your head was turned at the moment of impact.
You have symptoms that don’t resolve or that become generalized.
Do your best to avoid becoming frustrated with the pace of recovery. Setbacks are common and it is not unusual for some symptoms to come and go.

An auto accident can affect your health (and your lifestyle) for years if you don’t receive the proper treatment. So if you or someone you care about has been injured in a collision, please call our office and make an appointment today. Chiropractic care can help put your recovery in high gear!

Who is Most at Risk for Whiplash Injuries?

March 1, 2016 oblanderchiropractic

Whiplash is a type of injury that occurs when the neck is forcefully moved back and forth. It is most commonly a result of rear-end auto accidents, and it causes a number of painful symptoms, including headaches as well as discomfort and stiffness in the neck. While whiplash injuries can happen to anyone, some people are more at risk than others.

Who is most at risk for whiplash injuries?

Generally speaking, the better your body is at stabilizing itself, the less likely you are to suffer whiplash. Therefore, you are more at risk for whiplash if your physical condition is poor, if you are unaware of an incoming impact, if you are over the age of 65, or if you are female.

While you may not realize it, your body has an automatic stabilization system that responds very, very quickly as soon as you become aware that you’re about to experience an impact. The muscles in your neck will quickly contract in order to protect your discs and ligaments from the impact. Drivers who can see a vehicle coming up behind them in the rear view mirror are more likely to be protected by this stabilization process, making passengers who can’t see the approaching vehicle more at risk for neck injuries.

This stabilization process is also more effective if your overall physical condition is high. Having a larger frame, stronger musculature and a well-functioning nervous system helps to ensure your body responds appropriately to an incoming collision. This can help explain why women are naturally more susceptible to whiplash than men. Because they tend to have less muscle mass in their necks, there is less protection, making injuries more likely. The same is true of people over the age of 65.

What can be done to recover from a whiplash injury?

Unfortunately, whiplash injuries are very common among drivers in the United States. More than 1 million drivers are affected by whiplash every year, and most injuries take place at speeds below 12 mph. Even seemingly mild impacts can result in chronic pain that can interfere with your ability to live your life. While in many cases there isn’t much to be done to prevent a whiplash injury, there are many options to address it. Chiropractic care is one such option.

The first priority after an accident should be to address any serious or life-threatening injuries, such as trauma to the head, significant blood loss, damage to internal organs, bone fractures, etc. If these injuries are not an issue, it is a good idea to get a thorough evaluation from your chiropractor so that he or she can assess the health of your musculoskeletal system. He or she will ask you to describe the accident in detail, perform a complete physical examination, and do any diagnostic imaging necessary to fully understand your condition. Depending on the results, your chiropractor will then work with you to build a treatment plan. This plan might include adjustments to help correct any alignment issues, massage and soft-tissue manipulation, laser pain relief therapy and other treatments designed to relieve pain and restore function. The goal is always to help you heal more completely and more quickly.

Whiplash injuries are common, but there is no need for them to rob you of your ability to live a pain-free life. Contact our office today to learn more about how we can help eliminate your neck pain.

A Day in the Life of a Crash Test Dummy

January 28, 2016 oblanderchiropractic

Crash test dummies. You probably don’t think about them very much (if at all), but you may owe them much more than you realize when it comes to your health and safety on the nation’s roads. Automobile makers use crash test dummies—that is, inanimate, human-like mannequins—to simulate the type and scale of injury that may occur in an automobile accident. Car and truck manufacturers go to great lengths to design and build safe vehicles, and these “full-scale anthropomorphic test devices” or “ADTs” take a real beating day after day as they provide data regarding velocity of impact, crushing force, bending, folding, or torque of the body, as well as deceleration rates during test collisions.

U.S., car accidents kill more than 30,000 people each year and injure many more. However, manufacturers work continually to make cars safer and accidents more survivable through crash-testing programs. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, from 1994 to 2009, the fatality rate decreased from 23 to 16 fatalities per 100,000 licensed drivers. Crash test dummies have played an important part in that achievement as a result of their role in car testing and design. They’ve also played an important part in reducing the severity of auto accident injuries.

In order to survive a car accident and walk away with minimal injuries, drivers and passengers must be able to withstand the changes in kinetic energy that occur when bodies in motion suddenly come to a stop or when bodies at rest are suddenly accelerated. A car’s safety features, including seat belts and air bags, are made to help mitigate the damage that these abrupt changes can cause to the human body. Crash test dummies allow safety engineers to identify how the changes in kinetic energy caused by car crashes affect the human body and its musculoskeletal system. Researchers use this data to identify areas where changes could improve a car’s safety rating. Additionally, the data is useful to gauge the effectiveness of these improvements once they have been made.

Anthropomorphic test devices, or ATDs, have become enormously sophisticated since the first crash test dummy was created. Dubbed Sierra Sam, the first ATD was made in 1949 to test how ejection seats in aircraft affected people. Today’s crash test dummies are designed to simulate human anatomy in great detail, and to respond as the human body would respond to the forces and impacts generated by auto accidents. Using a wide variety of advanced materials and sensor technologies, they can tell a researcher what types of injuries would likely have been sustained by vehicle occupants in a crash—anything from surface skin abrasions and contusions to soft tissue damage, broken bones and life-threatening internal injuries.

Combined with sensors in the test car itself and an array of slow-motion video cameras, ATDs have helped designers and engineers understand better than ever before exactly what happens in different kinds of accidents so that they can protect vehicle drivers and passengers. And there’s no doubt they’re very valuable members of the safety team—they can cost anywhere from $100,000 to $400,000!

ATDs are built in a variety of shapes and sizes to mimic human differences. However, they’re also used in ways that allow carefully controlled testing from crash scenario to crash scenario and from vehicle to vehicle. Before each test, engineers paint different parts of the crash test dummy’s body with different colors, allowing them to identify how each part of the body impacts parts of the vehicle’s interior.

Car accidents can be particularly hard on the musculoskeletal system—injuries to the back, neck, and extremities are common. Unfortunately, many of these injuries may go undetected immediately after a collision, when adrenalin is flowing and participants are generally eager to leave the scene and move on with their lives. Symptoms may appear days, weeks or even months afterward. Plus the injuries sustained in a car crash may cause a host of ongoing health complications, such as recurring headaches, neck stiffness, TMJ, dizziness and chronic back pain as well as reduced mobility.

Chiropractic physicians are specially trained to diagnose and treat the types of musculoskeletal injuries that many people suffer as a result of care accidents. If you or someone you care about has been involved in a car accident, it’s very important that they receive a prompt medical evaluation from a qualitied healthcare professional—even if they feel fine or are only experiencing minor symptoms. Detecting injuries as soon as possible often allows auto accident victims to recover more quickly and more completely, with less pain and less disability.

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