Car accidents are one of the most common types of accidents to occur in the United States. They are also a leading cause of injury and an estimated 3 million people in the U.S. are injured in car accidents every year. Some of these are serious, while the majority involve minor trauma that can be recovered fully from with the right care.

If you have been involved in a car accident and you have suffered one or more injuries, you will almost certainly want to try to get fully recovered and back to your usual routine as quickly as you can. One of the best ways to do this is to undergo physical therapy.

What is physical therapy?

Physical therapy is the name used to describe the treatment of injury, disease or other issues using physical techniques such as massage, heat treatment or exercise. This is as opposed to using medication or surgery. Physical therapists examine each individual patient and develop a personalized treatment plan that will help to reduce pain, restore function, enhance mobility and prevent long-term disability.

How can physical therapy help patients to recover from a car accident injury?

Physical therapy has shown to be a successful technique for treating a range of injury types, including those which are sustained in car accidents. Some of the ways in which it can help include, but are not limited to the following:

Speed up your recovery

Getting back to normal as soon as possible will be very high on your list of recovery priorities. Fortunately, physical therapy can help to expedite the recovery process to make this possible. Regular physical therapy sessions will strengthen your muscles and restore full movement, as well as eliminating pain so that you can quickly start moving around again as normal.

Medication-free pain relief

Many people dislike taking pain medication. Nevertheless, some of the injuries that are sustained in a car accident can cause significant or chronic discomfort that can make day to day life more difficult. Physical therapy sessions can build your natural strength and reduce or eliminate your reliance on painkillers while you recover from your injury.

Prevention of long-term damage

There are many different types of injuries that can be sustained in a car accident. Some of these can cause lingering, long-term damage if they aren’t managed properly, such as ongoing back or joint pain and chronic headaches/migraines. The sooner treatment is sought, the more likely patients are to start getting relief from their symptoms and the lower their risk of experiencing long-term damage.

Avoid surgery

Some types of injury will obviously need surgery right away to resolve them. However, this doesn’t mean that you will never need surgery for a minor injury. Sometimes these types of injury can sometimes combine with natural wear and tear over time to create a much more significant issue – and it is this that can then prompt the need for surgery in later life. By using physical therapy to strengthen the muscles, tendons, and ligaments in your body, it is possible to avoid this potentially catastrophic combination and ensure that you avoid developing problems that could require surgery in the future.

Boost your mental health

Sometimes, patients who have been involved in a car accident are scarred mentally as well as physically. They can be traumatized enough that they find traveling in cars or any sort of vehicle difficult, or it may have caused them to experience anxiety or even depression. Physical therapy has been shown to help boost a patient’s mood and psychological wellbeing, which in turn can help to speed up the recovery process.

For more information on receiving physical therapy after a car accident, please contact our team of chiropractors today.