Rib Injuries in Car Accidents

A commonly seen complaint in car accident victims are rib and chest pains. From my perspective as a 25 year veteran of motor vehicle collision injury  treatment, the following are the most common factors involved in rib injuries:

• Frontal or side impact most common
• Rear impact if seat breaks backwards
• Female occupants
• Seat belt in use
• Rib strain “Bruised ribs” is most common injury vs fracture, but car crashes are most common cause of rib fracture

The most common mechanism in a rib injury appears to be a sudden stop against the seat belt causing the body to strain against the belt resulting in injury. This mechanism can lead to strain and if severe enough fracture of the ribs.

Another mechanism is physical strain in a lateral direction due to side impact collisions. In these collision there is little to restrain the body from being whipped from side to side resulting in strains and at time fractures of the ribs.

Steering wheel injuries are less common as more and more motorists use seat belts and cars are equipped with airbags. The most common and serious injuries associated with striking the steering wheel are broken ribs and/or sternum and chest wall injuries.

Although bruised or strained ribs are less serious than fractured ribs, it is an injury that is equally painful and can last just as long.  In fact strained ribs can linger for several months.

Proper Assessment of Car Accident Rib Pain:

• X-rays are required of any painful areas after a car accident
• Physical examination including specific physical maneuvers to ascertain rib fracture
• If after a period of treatment (about 4 weeks), the rib pain is unrelenting, a bone scan may be needed to rule out occult (hidden) fracture.

Treatment of Strained  Ribs After Car Accident:

Initial stages 3x/week x 4-6 weeks

• Interferential electrical stimulation and ice
• Cold laser therapy acute trauma and inflammation settings
• Home applications of heat and ice 1-2x/ day

Once pain has significantly subsided add…

• Chiropractic manipulation of ribs and thoracic spine joints
• Exercises of thoracic musculature

More about Orange County CA Car Accident

If you’ve been injured in a car crash, after your pain has subsided and you are able to move your neck better, you need to fully rehabilitate your neck to prevent problems later on.

Medical researchers found that up to 43% of car accident victims suffer from chronic pain and impairment directly related to their car wrecks. Another study found that after a car crash you’re 600% more likely to develop osteoarthritis of the neck joints.  The pain is mostly due to facet joint injuries after a car accident.

It would make sense then to improve the function of your neck, particularly Teh facet joints to make your neck as strong as possible and prevent as much long-term damage as you can.

Here is a Free down loadable E-book Neck exercises for Car Accident Injuries http://www.scribd.com/doc/48656469/Neck-Exercises-for-Car-Accident-Victims

More car accident information:
Orange County Car Accident Doctor

Facet joint injuries are the most common sources of pain in a rear impact motor vehicle collision.

The facet joints are the small paired joints to the rear of the neck that help provide and guide movement. They are small and delicate and are not supposed to bear much weight.  In a car accident, these joints and their surrounding support structures (ligaments, tendons, muscles) become damaged and malfunction.  These injuries cause a predictable pain pattern that your car accident medical expert should be aware of.

Slightly more than half of car crash victims will resolve with treatment, but upwards of 43% of whiplash victims will suffer from chronic pain and impairment and the vast majority fo those are due to chronic facet joint malfunction.

For more details including scientific references, see Facet Joint Injuries from Car Accidents on Scribd.com http://www.scribd.com/doc/48659929/Facet-Joint-Injuries-From-Car-Accidents

Orange County Car Accident Treatment

Low Back Pain Car Accident
While neck injuries are substantially more common after a car accident, lower back pain is still a significant problem that is often overlooked. Worse many insurers question whether a low back can be injured in a car accident.

Not only are back strains common in car accidents, but serious injuries such as disc herniation and bulges are not uncommon.  These types of injuries are more common due to degeneration of the disc prior to the accident, but which were often not symptomatic until after the accident.

Interestingly enough, many studies have shown that lower back pain after a car accident is often delayed. Headaches, neck pain and nausea are often early signs of injury after a car crash, but it may be days, weeks or months before low back pain emerges. A slower onset of back pain generally means a disc problem like disc bulging or a herniated disc. These injuries tend to take time before the disc bulges or herniates after it has been initially injured in the impact.

Signs of a serious lower back injury from a car accident:

• Delayed onset of weeks or moths after collision
• Pain is centered in middle of lower back and not in muscles
• Pain is aggravated by bending forward, coughing and/or sneezing
• Pain radiates to buttocks, leg or foot
• Back cannot straighten up or is pulled to one side

Learn more about lower back pain car accident at Orange Car Accident

Car accidents are common in Orange County due to the numbers of vehicles clogging our streets, highways and freeways. Face it, Orange County is a place on the move. Everyone must get around by car. If you’ve been unlucky enough to have suffered a car crash in Orange County, there are some basic facts you must know.

Fact #1: You can be injured even if your car wasn’t.
Several scientific studies over a period of years, have proven the human threshold of injury in a rear impact car crash is a mere 2.5 mph. Other studies have shown that most injuries were suffered in slow speed collisions of approximately 10-12 mph. Vehicle crash engineers and medical researches found that modern cars can be crashed bumper to bumper numerous times at up to 20 mph and show no visible signs of damage. Therefore your Orange County car crash could leave no bumper damage but your neck was subjected to 4 times the force needed to injure you.

Fact #2: Auto insurance companies use sophisticated computer programs to decide what a claim is worth and what types of treatment they are wiling to pay for. The insurance adjusters know how to game the system to make your claim worth less, therefore you need to know how to thwart their attempts to minimize your claim.

Fact #3: You must seek medical help right away.
Even if you are not sure if you are injured or not. Even if you only feel mild soreness or stiffness. You must report to a car accident doctor specialist within the first 72 hours. If you seek care afterward, your case may be jeopardized and your rights to proper care and a fair car accident settlement may be diminished. The insurance computers “like” treatment in the first 72 hours and score your claim higher while they discount claims for cases that seek care after 72 hours.

Fact #4: While it may be true that any medical doctor, chiropractor or therapist can treat a car accident injury, it is best to seek the help of a specialist in the area.
Yes, car accident injuries are a specialized field. There are many factors a true auto accident expert must know to accurately diagnose your problem and provide the best treatment possible all within the parameters of insurance computer programs. Your car accident injury expert will also be able to assist you in answering calls and letters from insurance companies and lawyers and refer you to other specialists when necessary.

Fact #5: Many car crash victims are unsure of what doctor to see or how they will pay the bills.
A true car accident expert will explain to you how the process works and how to arrange for treatment with no money out of your pocket. Even if you have no health insurance or automobile medical overage, as long as the other party is at fault and they art insured, you will be able to access the care you need without worry of paying up front. True car accident specialists know that you’ve already suffered enough, you don’t need the insult of having to take out a loan or use up your credit for treatment in an accident that is not your fault.

Fact #6: The average mild to moderate car accident neck injury can take 3 to 6 months to heal. Many cases are cited to last for up to one year or more. Moderate to severe cases may take up to two years to stabilize. Studies have shown that upwards of 40% of car accident neck injuries become permanent.  If an insurance adjuster, doctor or lawyer ever tells you, you should get better in a short time, ignore them. Medical science is clear on this issue. It can take many months to years for your injury to resolve. Insurance adjusters tell you this to minimize your claim and they have no scientific or medical basis for it. It’s merely monetary. Your own doctor or lawyer may tell you this because they are not true experts and have no clue about the true science. They will actually be working against you as they don’t believe your complaints.

Learn more about Orange County Car Accident facts including a Free Car Accident Video Seminar and more about Dr Barry Marks, DC Car Accident injury specialist.
Dr Barry Marks, Chiropractor Orange is an Orange County car accident expert, author and lecturer. Dr Marks has innovated diagnosis and treatment programs for car accident victims and is a former Associate Clinical Professor.

Think you can’t be hurt in a low speed collision? Been told your accident was too slow or there wasn’t enough vehicle damage to cause your neck pain? Watch these videos.

The human threshold for neck injury in a read impact collision is merely 2.5 mph. The visible damage threshold of most vehicles is on average greater than 10 mph. Therefore, your car crash could cause neck damage and not even show visible signs of vehicle damage.

Learn more at http://orange-car-accident.com

If you’ve recently suffered a car accident there is one thing you must do immediately to ensure your rights to proper medical care and a fair car accident settlement.

First you must know that the insurance claims adjuster has been specifically trained to thwart your attempts to receive proper care and a fair settlement. They are not there to assist you. They are not customer service representatives or ombudsmen. Please understand that they are charged by the insurance company to minimize all costs. That means they are to look for any reason, factual or not, to minimize your vehicle damage. They look for any reason, valid or not, to minimize your medical treatment. And lastly, they are tasked with finding any reason, and in fact may create reasons out of  thin air, to minimize how much they pay you as a car accident settlement.

Next, you need to know that insurance companies use different methods to value your case.  Most insurance companies use computer programs to make decisions on what a case is worth. These programs make their calculations based on what is inputted into them. I will leave the fact that the data can be manipulated by entering some information while omitting other data for another post. The important key here is the fact that this software is used and an important piece of data that is inputted is how soon after a car accident you receive treatment.

Insurance software gives high value for a case in which the accident victim receives treatment in the first 72 hours after a collision.  Conversely, it lowers case value, dramatically, for victims who seek treatment after 72 hours.  Of course this 72 hour window is completely arbitrary. There are no medical studies that indicate that injuries recover better if treated in this frame. In fact there are numerous scientific studies worldwide that indicates that many car accident injuries do not even appear within the first 72 hours. If you are injured but don’t know it yet, you are unlikely to receive treatment. Once your injury does appear a week later and you see your doctor, the insurance company’s computer says you are not really hurt or not hurt very bad. After all, if you really were hurt you would have seen a doctor within 72 hours.

If this seems absurd, which it most certainly is, the matter is worsened by the fact that the insurance company loves to get it both ways. Lets say you do receive treatment the same day as an accident, the adjuster, overriding the computer, will ask you “Why did you see your doctor so soon? Why didn’t you wait to see if the pain would just go away?”

So the once costly mistake to avoid is this 72 hour window. If you have been involved in a car accident, see a car accident medical expert right away. If you feel any stiffness, pain, headache, dizziness or other symptoms find a doctor or go to an emergency room, the day of the accident. If you suffer an accident and feel no pain, locate a car accident medical expert the day or two after the accident. Under no circumstance should you seek care later than 72 hours if you can help it.

What to do if you were the victim of an accident that occurred more than 72 hours ago and you are just now reading this? Don’t panic, all is not lost. Your case may be devalued to some degree but with the help of a competent car accident medical expert, the damage can be minimized. A doctor well versed in accident cases may be able to identify extenuating circumstances in which the 72 hour window would not apply.

The bottom line is if you’ve suffered a car accident, you need to see an experienced car accident medical expert for help.  Your family medical doctor, HMO doctor or general chiropractor is not your best choices. There are intricate ins and outs of these cases that your regular family doctor, HMO primary care doctor or general chiropractor just don’t know.  A true competent car accident expert will know the correct way to handle your case from filling out paperwork, talking to the insurance company and dealing with attorneys.

Learn more about common car accident mistakes to avoid at http://orange-car-accident.com

Post traumatic headache is one of the most common long term problems suffered by car crash victims.

Causes of Headaches After a Car Crash Injury:

• Mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI)
• Upper cervical ligament failure
• Chronic neck misalignment

Treatment of Post Traumatic Headache:

MTBI:

• Brain exercises (crosswords, puzzles, etc)
• Nutritional support (natural supplements that help brain function)
• Avoidance of chemicals that cause further brain problems (aspartame, glutamic acid, and other “excitotoxins”)
• Oxygen
• Chiropractic adjustments

Ligament damage:

• Stabilizing exercises
• Chiropractic adjustments
• Home neck traction
• Surgical stabilization

Neck curve misalignment:

• Chiropractic adjustments
• Rehabilitation exercises in office and home
• Pillow modification

Car Accident headaches are very common. A large percentage of people suffering from chronic headaches are caused by car accident injuries. Many times the headaches are due to a car crash that occurred many years ago and the patient is unaware of the connection.

Dashboard Knee Injury

A common but often overlooked injury after a car accident is what is known as “dashboard knee injury.” This common term is used to describe knee pain, swelling and or stiffness after an auto accident. The actual underlying injury is a deep bruise or contusion to the joint surface cartilage. The initial injury may not have any symptoms at all for days or even weeks.

Eventually, enough inflammation will build up so that the injury surfaces. Once that occurs you will notice the telltale symptoms of car accident dashboard knee:

• Pain on front of knee either on knee cap or just to side of knee cap
• Swelling of knee around knee cap
• Discoloration, bruising, abrasions around knee cap area
• Stiffness of knee on bending

Diagnosis of Car Accident Dashboard Knee:
A diagnosis is made off of history of trauma, signs of physical contact, and an exam that rules out other conditions such as cartilage tear, ligament sprain, etc

Treatment of Car Accident Dashboard Knee:
1. Initial treatment to reduce inflammation and swelling:

• Interferential electrical stimulation
• Ice
• Cold laser therapy acute trauma and inflammation  settings
• Range of motion exercises

2. Rehabilitative care to strengthen muscles and stabilize joint:

• Quad setting isometric exercises
• Knee extensions
• Modified Squats
• Cold laser and ice

Follow this link for a FREE Orange Car Accident Dashboard Knee Pain Evaluation by an Orange  County Car Accident Doctor

A recent post on another blog about what to do to avoid being involved in a car accident and what to do if you’ve already suffered an auto accident.

Read it here…… http://bit.ly/719S8N

More Orange County Auto Accident Information

Chiropractor Orange County Dr Barry Marks, Chiropractor, Orange CA 92868