How Chiropractic Care Helps with Auto Accident Injuries
Broken bones and open wounds aren't the only injuries you may face after an auto accident. Motor vehicle accidents can affect the alignment of your spine and damage muscles, ligaments, and tendons. Without proper treatment, your injuries could lead to chronic pain. Chiropractic treatments realign your spine, treat soft tissue damage, relieve pain and promote healing, helping you recover from your injuries. Chiropractic treatments address these issues and more:
Joint or Spinal Alignment Problems
Your brain sends signals to your muscles and organs through nerves that branch out from the spinal cord in your back. Signals may be weak or absent if a subluxation presses on a nerve. Subluxations happen when a vertebra in your back moves out of alignment. Using an activator or quick, hands-on thrusts, your chiropractor performs an adjustment to restore normal alignment and reduce pressure on nerves and soft tissues.
In addition to treating back pain, chiropractors also treat alignment issues in the knees, hips, arms, and legs. A case study published in the Journal of Contemporary Chiropractic in 2025 illustrated how chiropractic treatment helped a young woman with a leg injury following an accident.
The woman wore a brace on her left leg to correct gait issues after being hit by car. The accident also misaligned joints in her pelvis, causing bladder problems. Her chiropractor corrected alignment issues in her pelvis, left knee, and ankle by performing adjustments on a drop table. The drop table is separated into segments that move as the chiropractor performs an adjustment.
After the first treatment, the woman no longer needed the leg brace. Her bladder problems stopped after two weeks of chiropractic treatment.
Whiplash
Whiplash occurs when the neck quickly moves back-and-forth or from side-to-side during an accident. The sudden, rapid movement damages or strains muscles, ligaments, discs, and nerves in the neck.
Symptoms of whiplash include:
- Pain in the Neck, Jaw, Shoulders, or Upper Back
- Headaches
- Fatigue
- Dizziness
- Stiff Neck
- Muscle Spasms
- Numbness or Tingling in Arms
Approximately 869,000 people visit a hospital every year due to accident-related neck injuries, according to a 2020 analysis published in Accident & Analysis and Prevention. Many others may choose to treat whiplash symptoms at home. In fact, the analysis estimated that 1.2 million people per year may experience accident-related whiplash injuries.
Adjustments, massage, trigger point therapy and other chiropractic treatments decrease neck pain, stiffness, and inflammation, while improving movement. According to a 2010 systematic review published in Work, evidence suggests chiropractic care improves pain and range of motion in the neck after a whiplash injury.
Stiffness
Stiffness, a common complaint after an auto accident, can can be caused by swelling, tight tissues, inflammation or scar tissue. Chiropractic treatment relieves stiffness naturally by breaking up scar tissue and loosening tight muscles and soft tissues. Treatments reduce inflammation and swelling and improve blood circulation, allowing healing nutrients to reach the injured tissues.
Pain Relief
A bottle of pain relievers may be the first thing you reach for after an accident. Pain medication, whether it's over-the-counter or prescription, provides temporary relief of aches and pains. Unfortunately, symptoms soon return if the source of the problem remains untreated.
Chiropractors perform a thorough examination to determine the extent of your injuries. They may use X-rays and other tests to confirm their diagnoses. Once a diagnosis is made, your chiropractor creates a treatment plan. The plan includes therapies designed to relieve pain and keep it from returning.
Chiropractic care offers an effective way to treat pain, inflammation, and stiffness. Worried about becoming addicted to prescription pain medication? Thanks to chiropractic care, you may be able to reduce your dosage or avoid pain medication entirely.
Feeling sore after an auto accident? Ease your pain with chiropractic care. Contact our office to schedule your appointment.
Sources:
NCBI: Work: A Systematic Review of Chiropractic Management of Adults with Whiplash-Associated Disorders: Recommendations for Advancing Evidence-Based Practice and Research, 1/2010
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20364057/
Science Direct: Accident Analysis & Prevention: Estimating the Number of Traffic Crash-Related Cervical Spine Injuries in the United States: An Analysis and Comparison of National Crash and Hospital Data, 7/2020
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001457520300713
Journal of Contemporary Chiropractic: Chiropractic Care of a Patient with Long-Standing Symptoms Associated with Pedestrian-Motor Vehicle Collision, 5/13/2025
American Chiropractic Association: Neck Pain
https://www.acatoday.org/patients/neck-pain-and-chiropractic/
Chiropractic & Manual Therapies: Effects of Spinal Manipulative Therapy on Inflammatory Mediators in Patients with Non-Specific Low Back Pain: A Non-Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial, 1/8/2021
https://chiromt.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12998-020-00357-y
Harvard Health: Whiplash Injury: Relieving the Pain in Your Neck, 5/21/2024