Up to 70% of individuals will experience neck pain that interferes with daily activities at some point in their lifetime.
Neck pain doesn’t occur without reason. Whether you’ve been in a car accident or you hurt your neck playing sports, it’s important to get proper medical attention. Even if your neck injury is relatively minor, you should be visiting a chiropractor to help deal with the pain and discomfort.
These types of injuries aren’t just painful, they can be incredibly frightening as well. Neck injuries can lead to a number of other medical issues that can be detrimental to your overall quality of life. If you’ve been putting off your visit to the chiropractor, this post is for you.
Today, we’re going to tell you 9 reasons to visit a chiropractor for your neck injury. With proper care, you’ll be able to put this injury behind you, so keep reading and start thinking about booking your chiropractor’s appointment ASAP.
1. Get a Proper Diagnosis
With online resources like WebMD and Healthline, we live in the age of self-diagnosis. Although these sources are incredibly helpful for giving the general public crucial medical information, nothing beats a real diagnosis from a qualified professional.
In a few minutes, your chiropractor will have a general idea of what’s going on with your neck. They may order tests and scans to get a clearer picture, but after your initial consultation, your chiropractor will begin formulating a plan to fix it.
2. Neck Adjustments
Whether you’ve suffered your neck injury as a result of whiplash from a car accident or a tough hit in a football game, the first step to helping you deal with the pain is probably a neck adjustment.
Cervical manipulation, as it’s known, involves placing strategic pressure on the injured joints in your neck. After several appointments, you’ll notice plenty of pain relief and a greater range of motion in your neck.
There are a few different types of neck adjustments a qualified chiropractor will perform. A cervical drop involves the head of the table that you’re laying on dropping as the chiropractor gently thrusts on your neck.
Cervical manual traction is when you’re laying face-up and the chiropractor stretches your neck upward. Lastly, cervical mobilization will have your chiropractor adjust your neck to realign the neck vertebrae.
3. Eliminating Daily Pain
The goal of the above treatments is to attempt to eliminate the daily pain that you’re feeling from your neck injury. When we suffer a car accident or sport-related neck injuries, even if they’re not serious, we’re almost constantly irritated by daily activities.
Benign activities like working at a computer or even laying in bed at night can make the pain worse. By seeing the best chiropractor, you’re proactively dealing with the pain so that your neck can properly heal.
4. Avoid Related Injuries
As we mentioned at the top, neck injuries can have implications on other areas of your body. The most notable of these are your back, your limbs, and your head. Many people with neck injuries experience back pain, tingly limbs, and headaches – these are examples of “referred pain”.
The longer you leave your neck injury untreated, the more likely you’ll start experiencing these kinds of symptoms. Chiropractors understand this, so their treatments are aimed at not just reducing neck pain, but avoiding other types of pain as well.
5. Reduce Inflammation
Chiropractors specialize in the relief of pressure on nerves and realigning the spine and vertebrae. When you’ve got an injury of this nature, the resulting inflammation is what ends up causing the most discomfort.
In addition to your chiropractic treatments, your chiropractor will instruct you on exercises you can do at home to help relieve inflammation also. The combination of in-person and self-administered treatment is proven to improve the pain and discomfort associated with inflammation.
6. Better Posture
Over 31 million Americans suffer from poor posture. When you’re young, this might not cause many issues. It’s as you start aging or experience a neck injury that your posture can really start to affect you.
Back and neck pain can cause poor posture, but it can also result from poor posture. One of the first things your chiropractor will do is examine your posture and work with you to improve it. You can’t properly recover from an injury when you’re actively aggravating it with your poor posture.
7. No More Headaches
Another condition that results from a neck injury is chronic headaches, which are known as cervicogenic headaches. This is another example of referred pain because it’s actually a pain in your neck that you feel in your head.
The pain will likely start on one side of your head at the base of the skull, slowly traveling up the side of the head. Eventually, the pain can be debilitating, so it’s important to see a chiropractor when you start experiencing these symptoms.
8. You’ve Been In an Accident
If you’ve been in an auto accident, getting medical attention is essential whether you think you need it or not. Whiplash can occur at low speeds, putting a lot of strain on the neck muscles and cervical spine. The symptoms of these injuries can manifest in days or even weeks after an accident.
Going to a chiropractor in the immediate aftermath of the accident will ensure that you get professional diagnostic care. Not only will you discover injuries and get them treated, but you’ll be prepared for your insurance claim with all of the pertinent medical information.
Don’t Suffer Through Your Neck Injury
No matter how you’ve suffered your neck injury, there’s no need to suffer through it alone. If any of the things we’ve discussed here apply to you, you’ve got good reason to see a chiropractor. Those located in Salt Lake City should visit Dr. Calvin’s Clinic for a free consultation.
As the #1 Google-rated chiropractor in West Valley, our aim is always to find the source of your injury so we can give you the right treatment. Contact us today to discuss your injury and how we can help.