Back pain that starts in the hours or days after a collision is usually a soft-tissue injury: the muscles, ligaments, joints and discs of the spine absorbed a load they were not braced for. It is worth having examined even when the pain seems manageable, because the injuries that become long-term problems are often the ones that felt minor in the first week.
At Mountain View Pain Center you can be seen without a referral, appointments are usually available within the same week, and the evaluation is the same whether the crash was last night or three weeks ago.
A few symptoms should not wait for an appointment at all. Go to an emergency department if you have loss of bladder or bowel control, numbness in the groin or inner thighs, leg weakness that is getting worse, or severe pain after a high-speed crash, a rollover, or a crash in which you were thrown from the seat.
Everything else is an appointment rather than an emergency, and this is the list that makes it worth booking this week instead of next month:
Back pain after a collision is treated first as a soft-tissue problem, because that is usually what it is. Chiropractic care restores the movement the crash took out of the joints, and Physical Therapy rebuilds the muscle that has been guarding around them. Acupuncture is available where it helps with pain and muscle tone.
The aim early on is to keep the back moving rather than to rest it, and to keep the load light while the tissue settles. Treatment is adjusted week to week against what the back is doing, not against a fixed schedule.
If the pain is not settling, or if it begins traveling down a leg, the Pain Management physicians review the case and decide whether imaging or an interventional procedure is the right next step. Interventional procedures are performed in office at Northglenn, InterQuest, Mesa and Westgate. Spine injections are also performed at Lowry on specific days.
Everything is recorded on one chart, so a change in the plan does not mean repeating the history.
The lower back takes the most load in a rear-end collision, because the pelvis is held in place by the seat while the trunk above it keeps moving. That is why lower back pain is the most frequent complaint we see in the first week after a crash, and why it so often arrives with a stiff hip or a sore joint on one side of the pelvis.
When the pain runs past the buttock and down the back of the leg, the likely cause is an irritated nerve root rather than the muscle itself, and the examination changes accordingly. That pattern is covered in more detail on the sciatica page, and the disc injury that often sits behind it on the herniated disc from a car accident page.
Back injury care after a crash can be billed to the med-pay portion of an auto policy, to a lien where an attorney is involved, or to your health insurance. The billing team sets the route up at the first visit, so it is settled before treatment starts.
Medical transportation is available for accident patients and can be billed to the lien. Each route is explained in full on the car accident care page.
Every clinic below has Chiropractic, Physical Therapy, Acupuncture and Pain Management on one chart, so care can move between them without a new referral.
Downtown out through the north, west, south and east suburbs.
Academy, InterQuest and Tenderfoot cover the north, central and south of the city.
Harmony in Fort Collins and our Greeley clinic serve Larimer and Weld counties.
Across the Valley, from the West Valley through Phoenix to the East Valley.
It commonly starts within 24 to 72 hours, once the adrenaline of the crash has worn off and inflammation has set in. Pain that appears later than that is still worth having examined.
No. You can book directly, and appointments are usually available within the same week.
Yes. Mild early pain is common in injuries that later become chronic, and an early baseline examination makes the medical record clearer for whoever is handling the claim.
Usually Chiropractic care and Physical Therapy first, with Acupuncture available, and a Pain Management physician reviewing the case if the pain is not settling or is traveling into a leg.
Accident care can be billed to the med-pay portion of an auto policy, to a lien where an attorney is involved, or to your health insurance. The route is set up at the first visit.
Medical transportation is available for accident patients, and it can be billed to the lien.
The mechanism is different. A collision loads the spine quickly and in a direction it does not normally move, which is why the injury pattern is often one-sided and why the pain can appear a day or two after the crash.
At any Mountain View Pain Center clinic in Colorado or Arizona. Interventional procedures, where they are needed, are performed in office at Northglenn, InterQuest, Mesa and Westgate. Spine injections are also performed at Lowry on specific days.
No referral is needed to be evaluated, appointments are usually available within the same week, and accident care can be billed to med-pay or to a lien.
