When a person is engaged in an auto accident the first thing he does is assess the damage done. Can he move or exit the vehicle? Is there pain? Where is the pain? Is it in the legs, shoulders, arms, back, neck or head? Do the bones feel broken? If another vehicle is involved, people tend to rush out of their own vehicle to assess damage to the other party or even to their own vehicle. Once a person is up and out of his vehicle, pain may make itself present. Though, most often there is so much adrenaline coursing through the injured bodies that pain or injury may not be assessed for days after the accident. When in an accident, serious or otherwise, all parties should see a chiropractic physician as soon as possible and have a professional assess the damage done to their bodies.

One of the more complained about symptoms stemming from major (or minor) auto accidents is back pain. The other most complained about issue is neck pain or whiplash. A chiropractor can easily determine if that pain is in the thoracic, mid-back, discs, lumbar or lower back. Many times, an accident victim may be ailing from compression fractures (which can cause permanent disability), hernias (which can cause injury to the spinal cord), or broken bones. An auto accident can also injure the back nerves, ligaments and muscles

Did you know that ninety percent of all Americans will suffer from some sort of back pain in their lifetime? More often than not, back pain (lower and upper) is never found to be caused from anything specific, yet a person suffering from any form of back pain may have had more than one occurrence of back pain in their lifetime. A person in an auto accident (who has suffered from back pain or who hasn't) is likely to have back pain due to the sheer force of the accident upon the body. The human body is not meant to absorb the amount of force and trauma an auto accident can inflict upon it.

While back pain can be caused from any number of sources, one should still make an appointment with a chiropractor after an auto accident to make sure that the back pain is associated with the accident (for insurance purposes) and to get the proper treatment to heal the body. Even if the back pain is not attributed to the accident, a patient should still visit a chiropractor to help control the pain and create a plan to manage it. In many cases, the back pain will go away on its own, but one must be careful to make sure that the problem does not lead to more serious injuries if the back is hurt again.