There are few events that can stress the body quite like a car accident, and this strain can impact several different bodily areas. While the back and spine tend to get much of the attention here, with good reason in most cases, it’s important not to ignore other potential injury areas if you’ve been in an accident — and a prominent area here is the shoulders.
At Peterson Chiropractic, we’re proud to offer the very best auto accident treatment, whiplash treatment and related services to clients in Salt Lake City and other parts of Utah who have recently been in an accident. What are some signs that you may have a shoulder injury as a result of an accident, and how will our services assist you if this is the case? This two-part blog series will dig into everything you need to know.
Signs of Shoulder Injury Following Car Accident
Firstly, here are some of the telltale signs or symptoms of a shoulder injury following car accident:
- Piercing pain: If you feel sharp, piercing pain in your shoulder or upper arm area after an accident, this is a sign that something may be wrong.
- Tingling: Along similar lines, if you feel any tingling sensations in these areas following your accident, it’s important to seek care right away.
- Numbness: Numbness in the shoulder or arm is yet another sign that you may have sustained an injury in this area.
- Stiffness: Finally, stiffness and loss of range of motion in the shoulder are also both common signs of an accident-related injury here.
If you experience any of these issues, it’s critical to reach out to a qualified chiropractor or other medical professional for treatment. Let’s go over the care formats and benefits you’ll find from going the chiropractic route in our next few sections.
Chiropractic Shoulder Injury Treatment Options
Here are just a few of the treatment types we may utilize for a shoulder injury following a car accident:
- Shoulder adjustment: We may perform a series of adjustments to help improve alignment and reduce pain in the shoulder area. These involve gently stretching the shoulders to restore them to their typical alignment — which also helps increase blood flow to the injured area and improves recovery speed.
- Spinal adjustment: The spine and shoulders are closely linked, so it’s often necessary to adjust the spine as well when treating a shoulder injury. This helps ensure that your entire upper body is back in proper alignment and can improve blood flow, just like with the shoulder adjustment.
- Stretching or other exercise recommendations: In many cases, we may also recommend some simple at-home stretching or other exercises to help improve shoulder function and speed up the healing process.
In part two of our series, we’ll go over how these adjustments will benefit you if you’re dealing with post-accident shoulder pain. For more on this, or to learn about any of our chiropractic care services to SLC patients, speak to our team at Peterson Chiropractic today.