Bucek Chiropractic

You bet! In fact, seeking our care would be very wise since most injuries from a car accident are “soft tissue”-related; meaning muscles, ligaments, and/or tendons are injured. If you’re treated quickly after the accident, depending on the severity, recovery is usually pretty short (less than 4 weeks is pretty typical in our office). Unfortunately, the longer you wait after the accident for care, the recovery time is longer because of scar tissue formation. I always recommend that patients make an appointment on the same day the accident occurred. How do I know I should seek care after a car accident? Sometimes people don’t feel the effect from a car accident immediately, usually because of shock and the adrenaline rush. You might think to yourself “I’m fine, I’m fine. Nothing hurts.” But, after the accident, it’s common to feel tightness, stiffness, or pain in the neck or upper back after a couple of days. This delay is caused by inflammation from the damage to the soft tissue f...

I get the question sometimes of “should I ice this or heat this?”. It depends on what “this” is—meaning, is “this” an acute injury or a chronic problem? When you should Ice Icing should be used to treat acute injuries; typically for the first 48 to 72 hours. The icing should be performed for a duration of 8-12 minutes, allowing for the region to recover fully following the icing application. Then, the next application of ice may be administered.  There are a variety of methods to “ice” an area of the body—frozen gel packs, ice cups, ice water immersion, to name a few examples. Most folks use a gel pack or have a bag of frozen vegetables (the smaller the veggie, the better!) that they use—just be sure not to cook with it, the freezing and thawing isn’t good for the veggies. Unless instructed otherwise, it is important to have a barrier between the skin and the cold element to protect the skin. Usually, a t-shirt works just fine.  If the pain of your injury doesn’t ...