Long Island Physical Therapy: Common Treatments After a Car Accident

Post-Accident Physical Therapy Treatments

Following a car accident on Long Island, you may feel overwhelmed and unsure of what steps to take. If you get injured, contact your doctor, lawyer, an insurance company, and physical therapist.

Not sure whether or not your car injury needs physical therapy? A physical therapist uses special techniques to help reduce pain and gain back strength, range of motion, and sensation in the body. After a car accident, physical therapy can be crucial to recovery.

Read on to learn about common PT treatments following a car accident.

Whiplash Physical Therapy Treatment

Many people sustain a whiplash injury following a motor vehicle accident on Long Island. This occurs when the head snaps backward and then forward, injuring soft tissues of the cervical spine.

With this injury, people typically experience neck pain. It can range from mild to severe.

It can also cause pain in the arms, shoulders, and back. Other physical symptoms can include neck stiffness, muscle spasms, loss of coordination, head instability, and pins and needle sensations.

Whiplash may also cause mental changes. You may experience headaches, dizziness, vertigo, difficulty concentrating, emotional changes, and sleep disturbances.

This can debilitate you, seriously affecting your everyday life. It can even lead to long-term injuries, such as nerve damage.

Physical therapy on Long Island, NY will help reduce the amount of time it takes to heal and limit the amount of long term damage. The therapist can help you safely regain full range of motion.

Long Island Therapy for Lower Back Injury

In the same way that a car crash can result in whiplash, it can injury the lower back as well. Sudden movements of the spine can result in strains, sprains, and more serious spinal injuries.

A sprain or strain may cause mild to severe pain, inflammation, and a limited range of motion. A spinal injury can cause tingling, numbness, and inability to move specific body parts.

A lower back injury can put you out of work for a significant amount of time and affect your daily life. Physical therapy can help reduce the time it puts you out of commission and help you avoid permanent injury.

Broken Rib Therapy

A car crash can slam your body into the steering wheel or other parts of the car, resulting in broken ribs. This can cause significant pain, especially when breathing or twisting your body.

Your rib cage protects vital organs, like the heart, lungs, and liver. So, it is important to make sure your movements do not cause further injury.

A Long Island physical therapist will safely guide you through gentle stretching and other movements to help you gain a full range of motion. This will not only help you walk and move better, but also breathe better.

Massage Therapy

Sometimes motor vehicle accidents do not cause any specific injury. They may result in generalized pain around the body.

During the accident, your body may reach several points of impact. You may slam against the steering wheel, dashboard, side door, seat, seat belt, or another person.

The impact, spinning, and or rolling of the vehicle can contort your body into ways it should not move. Your body also instinctively tenses all of the muscle groups to brace for the impact.

All of these actions can lead to generalized muscle injuries after a car accident. It may cause strains, sprains, or even muscle tears.

Getting on a physical therapy treatment table for massage will help you heal. It does more than make you feel better at the moment!

Rubbing the body improves circulation. This helps with healing as it brings oxygenated and nutrient-rich blood to all of the tissues in the body.

An injury creates inflammation, which can lead to stagnation, as the blood cannot freely flow to the tissues. Massage manually pushes the blood through to the areas that need healing.

The manual manipulation of the muscle also relaxes the tissues. This helps to relieve tension so that the body can allow itself to rest and better heal, and it alleviates the pain.

Swelling caused by muscle injury can also lead to compression of the nerves, creating more pain, tingling, numbness, and weakness. Massage therapy can decrease the nerve compression.

Getting a physical therapy massage can also help alleviate headaches you might experience following the car accident. Plus, it releases endorphins that will boost your mood and help you deal with the stress of it all.

Electric Stimulation Therapy (Electric Stim)

Following the accident, your body may not be ready to move around right away. This does not mean that you cannot begin physical therapy.

The therapist may use electric stimulation to stop muscle spasms and pain. They simply strap electrodes to the muscles and send small shocks.

This can also prevent your muscles from breaking down in the event that you simply cannot move them for the time being. It will move them for you to help keep them strong and maintain healthy blood flow.

Hydrotherapy

Physical therapy after a car accident might involve water, for a number of injuries. Hydrotherapy provides an option for a serious injury where you cannot bear weight, but it also provides resistance to help build up strength.

Exercising while in the water creates more resistance while keeping you safely cushioned. This allows your muscles to work harder while putting less stress on your spine and joints.

Simply soaking in the water offers its own benefit for relieving tension and pain. You may use it for a wide range of accident-related injuries, ranging from moderate to severe.

Seek the Help You Need Now

If you fall victim to a car accident, do not hesitate to seek out all of the help you need. You deserve to get your life back to normal as quickly as possible.

Your wellbeing is important to us, so we want to help you find everything from legal assistance to the physical therapy treatments you need!

Call 1-800-897-8440 today to schedule an appointment with the best Long Island Physical Therapy practice!