After a car accident, it is very common to have neck and arm pain. This is due to the mechanism of injury or the way your body moves when you’re in a car crash.
The most common type of car accident is the rear end collision. When you are rear ended, your head quickly moves backwards into the headrest followed immediately by moving back towards the steering wheel in the exact opposite direction. This type of injury is called a whiplash injury due to your neck moving like a whip.
This rapid, unguarded movement puts extreme stress on the muscles, tendons, ligaments, joints, and discs of the spine. During this quick movement your muscles are torn, ligaments stretched or damaged, excessive force is placed on the intervertebral discs and the force causes the small joints of the spine to compress together.
There are a few main reasons you could have neck and arm pain after your car crash.
There is damage to one of the intervertebral discs of the neck.
When the discs are squeezed firmly and quickly, they will bulge or even rupture causing a disc herniation. When the disc herniates or the disc bulges, there is an increase in pressure and inflammation around the nerve as it exits your spine.
This causes a sharp or electric pain that radiates down the arm or the leg.
There is muscle spasm and muscle guarding causing nerve entrapment.
When the muscles contract at the last second to try and stabilize your neck during the car wreck, they become torn apart. This happens because the small muscles of your neck are not strong enough to handle the force imparted by the car collision.
The muscles react to this recent damage by spasming. This spasm of the muscles leads to squeezing of the nerves as they pass through the muscles on their way down the arm, leg, or around the chest.
When the muscle squeezes on the nerve, you get burning pain, pinchy pain, deep achy pain, or even electric nerve pain.
There is damage to the facet joint of the spine.
When your head, upper back, or lower back moves backwards (into extension) quickly and forcefully, the joint surfaces of the vertebrae are slammed together. This rapid compression of the joints leads to damage, inflammation, and pain.
The facet joints of the neck or cervical spine typically create a radiating pain in the area of the upper traps and between the shoulder blades.
The facet joints of the lower back or lumbar spine typically create a radiating pain in the belt line area or in the buttocks.
Muscle strain of your neck and your arm.
It is possible to have two separate injuries that happened during the car accident. If you are gripping the steering wheel firmly during the impact of the car crash, you can significantly damage the muscles of your forearm, bicep, or shoulder as well as the muscles of your neck.
The pain from the muscle damage is likely to lead to deep achy, dull pain that can become sharp with movement.
What do I do if I have neck and arm pain after a car accident?
If you have neck and arm pain after an automobile collision, you should get an examination by a qualified professional as soon as you can. It is important to rule out any major injury that would require emergency intervention and it is important to get you started on the road to recovery.
If you can, seek medical attention from a medical professional who is familiar with or frequently works with car accident injuries. It is important to appropriately document your injuries if they are related to the car accident so that the costs can be completely covered by the automobile insurance.
At Boulder Sports Chiropractic, we have years of experience helping patients who were rear ended, side swiped, t-boned, and even in roll over accidents.
We can help you file the correct claims with the car insurance so that you will not have to pay for treatment. If documented appropriately, you can have all of your medical bills paid by the car insurance. Massage therapy, physical therapy, and chiropractic treatment is all done in our office, so you don’t have to drive across Boulder to get to your next appointment.
At our Boulder Colorado office, we have a car accident chiropractor to help with your pain, inflammation, and stiffness. We offer physical therapy for car accident patients to help you strengthen the damaged muscles. We also have massage for car accident patients to help decrease spasm and pain.
Massage therapy, dry needling, class 4 laser therapy, chiropractic adjustments, and strengthening exercises are just a few of the services we offer to help you get fast pain relief.
Call or email our office today to learn how we can help you decrease your neck and arm pain quickly with no out of pocket costs to you.
303-444-5105
If you were in a car accident and are looking for fast and lasting pain relief from car crash injury, call or e-mail us today. Ask us about how you can use automobile insurance to fully pay for your treatment - $0 out of pocket costs to you.