Injured in a Car Accident? How Chiropractic Care Can Speed Up Recovery

Getting hurt in a car crash isn’t the same as pulling a muscle at the gym or straining your back at work. The sudden, violent forces involved — even in minor fender-benders — can cause hidden damage that doesn’t show up immediately. Many people walk away from accidents feeling fine, only to wake up days later with severe pain and stiffness.

At Spine Care of Manassas Chiropractic Center in Manassas, Virginia, Lincoln German, DC, and Mikaela Foley-Lorenzen, DC, understand how crash forces affect your body. They use targeted chiropractic treatments to address the specific problems car accidents create, helping you recover faster and avoid long-term complications.

Your body can hide crash damage for days

Even low-speed accidents generate enough force to stretch ligaments beyond their normal range and create microscopic tears in muscle fibers.

Your body’s immediate response can mask the actual damage. Adrenaline and natural shock responses often hide pain for hours or even days after an accident. This delayed onset means many people don’t realize they need treatment until inflammation sets in and tissues begin to stiffen.

The most common oversight is assuming that if nothing shows up on an X-ray, no real damage occurred. X-rays only reveal broken bones, not the soft tissue injuries that cause most post-accident pain and disability.

The perfect example of this delayed damage is whiplash. It happens when your head gets whipped back and forth during impact. This violent snapping motion stretches and tears the muscles, ligaments, and other soft tissues in your neck.

Most people think whiplash only involves neck pain, but the rapid back-and-forth motion affects your entire spine. The sudden movement forces your head forward and backward in a sequence that your neck muscles can't control or prevent.

Chiropractic adjustments restore normal movement patterns

Car accidents disrupt the normal movement patterns your spine relies on for pain-free function. Vertebrae shift slightly out of position, creating areas of restricted motion that force other segments to move too much.

Chiropractic adjustments restore proper motion to restricted joints while taking pressure off the areas that have been overworked. This rebalancing allows your spine to function as an integrated unit again instead of fighting against itself.

Adjustments work best when performed soon after an accident, before scar tissue forms and movement restrictions become permanent. Early intervention prevents minor alignment problems from developing into chronic pain conditions.

Multiple treatment approaches work better than single methods

Effective car accident recovery requires addressing several problems simultaneously. Spine Care of Manassas uses a combination approach that targets different aspects of crash-related injuries, including:

• Spinal adjustments to restore proper joint movement
• Cold laser therapy to reduce inflammation at the cellular level
• Massage therapy to release muscle tension and improve circulation
• Spinal decompression to relieve pressure on compressed nerves
• Postural rehabilitation to retrain proper movement patterns

This comprehensive approach prevents the common problem of treating symptoms while ignoring underlying causes. 

Get proper car accident care in Manassas, Virginia

Don't assume you're fine just because you walked away from your accident. Many serious injuries take days to develop, and early treatment is key to improving your recovery time and outcome.

The team at Spine Care of Manassas Chiropractic Center has extensive experience helping car accident victims recover completely. Dr. German and Dr. Foley understand how to work with insurance companies and will document your injuries properly to protect your rights.

Call our Manassas office or book online to schedule your post-accident evaluation. Proper care now prevents minor injuries from becoming major problems that affect you for years to come.