Physical Therapy in Columbus, GA
A car accident greatly affects the victim’s physical health and well-being. Consequently, the recovery from the accident can be problematic, requiring the services of a physio therapist. However, in our experience, you need to work with the best physical therapies to improve the rate and effectiveness of recovery.
You need the input of highly experienced therapists who have specialized in working with accident victims. You need the best Columbus physical therapy service providers, like Georgia Spine & Orthopaedics.
Call us today on 678-929-4494 to talk with our car accident physiotherapist!
What is Physical Therapy
Also known as physiotherapy, physical therapy is an approach to treatment that uses a combination of exercises, stretches, massages, and other therapeutic treatments that rely on physical stimuli to relieve pain, strengthen weakened muscles, and/or improve mobility of car accident patients.
Typically, the therapist chooses a combination of treatments optimized to recover from injuries caused by vehicular accidents.
As such, aside from taking into account the patient’s physical fitness, our specialist also considers the need to strengthen specific parts of the body or you want to alleviate pain, among other considerations.
The therapist may use a combination of the following treatments to achieve the goals of physiotherapy:
- Exercises that focus on moving the problem areas,
- Physical stimuli, including cold, heat, ultrasound, and/or electrical currents, and
- Guided and passive movements done by the therapists (such as manual therapy and massages).
Exercises play a huge role in physical therapy. They are not only central to the strengthening of weakened muscles, but they also help enhance mobility and coordination in patients. In exercise sessions, the physio therapist instructs the patients on how to perform the exercises and tracks their progress.
As part of your physio therapy treatment regimen, the therapist may also incorporate passive treatments if need be. For such treatment, the therapist moves the patient’s body or part of it in a certain way to improve mobility on stiff joints. Passive treatments are typically common among patients who can’t move a joint, limb, or neck after a car accident.
Physical therapies that rely on physical stimuli are bused to loosen muscles, ligaments, and connective tissue to enhance mobility and relieve stress and pain. Treatments that use physical stimuli include:
- Electrotherapy or electrical stimulation (e-stim) in the form of neuromuscular electrical stimulation optimized to improve motor skills or transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation for pain alleviation.
- Iontophoresis,
- Manual lymphatic drainage (massaging tissues to drain fluid),
- Light therapy,
- Cold therapy, and
- Heat or moist heat therapy.
With the plethora of treatment options available for patients, our experienced therapist will choose the most effective combination of treatment options, creating a personalized regimen for you.
Is Physical Therapy the Same as Chiropractic Care?
For the uninitiated, it’s easy to confuse physiotherapy and chiropractic care. After all, they both center on helping patients ease their pain and improve their function and movement without having to resort to invasive procedures.
However, they are fundamentally different in their approach to the pain relief end.
For starters, physical therapy focuses on disabilities and physical impairments. It relies on guided movements and exercises to initiate and help move stiff or locked joints, thereby improving the mobility and general movement of the patient. In this regard, physical therapy relies on muscle movement to help realign joints back to their natural position over time.
In case of a car accident, physical therapy takes you through a slow rehabilitation and recovery process, taking into the strength of your muscles and the extent of your injuries.
On the other hand, chiropractic care focuses on rehabilitating the musculoskeletal system.
It involves a professionally trained and experienced chiropractor manually adjusting and manipulating the joints (in a process known as joint manipulation for joints or spine manipulation for the spine) to realign any misaligned joints.
To this end, chiropractors use their hands and other specialized tools to apply pressure on the problem areas, relieving pressure and stiffness.
There is also a difference in how and when the two types of therapies are applied. Patients can and are encouraged to continue carrying out physical therapy. However, chiropractic care should only be performed by an experienced professional, lest you exacerbate the injuries.
What Does A Car Accident Physical Therapist Treat?
1. Spinal Cord Injuries and Joint Injury
Physical therapy decreases pain and helps car accident victims suffering from herniated disks recover from their injuries.
A well-crafted physical therapy regimen involving joint mobilizations in the hips, lumbar spine and thoracic spine, trigger point dry needling, and soft tissue mobilization addresses the pain associated with back and joint pain.
It also helps patients improve their strength and mobility, both of which are essential to full recovery.
2. Sprains and Strains
Sprains and strains are common in car accidents, even in low-velocity accidents. While these are common injuries, they can be surprisingly difficult to heal if insufficient intervention occurs.
Physical therapy enhances the healing rate and minimizes the pain from sprains and strains. Exercises increase blood circulation, increasing the supply of oxygen-rich blood to the injured areas and stimulating the body’s natural healing.
3. Whiplash Associated Disorder (WAD)
This is a collection of symptoms (such as nonspecific headaches, neck pain, shoulder stiffness, shoulder weakness, and temporomandibular joint pain) affecting the neck caused by the rapid acceleration and deceleration caused by an accident.
Similar to treating sprains and strains, physical therapy enhances the body’s ability to recover WAD.
4. Recovering From Fractures
Fracture physiotherapy is part and parcel of many post-car accident recoveries. After all, many car accident victims suffer broken limbs. Generally, fracture physiotherapy begins soon after the fracture is immobilized.
It’s usually designed to encourage weight bearing, reduce pain, reduce swelling, maintain or recover the range of motion of the areas around the joints, maintain strength around the immobilized regions, and prevent weakness and stiffness from developing around the immobilized region.
5. Post-Concussion Disorder
Car accidents tend to cause multiple injuries that require physical therapy for proper recovery. However, such accidents are also renowned for causing concussions.
Physiotherapists are experienced in helping patients undertake physical therapy designed to recover from their injuries without straining and overloading the brain, which requires rest to recover from a concussion.
Why it is Important to Your Car Accident Settlement to Follow Your Physical Therapist’s Advice
On the personal health front, you should make an effort to adhere to your therapist’s advice. After all, you’ll benefit immensely from faster recovery, potentially avoiding invasive procedures, minimizing pain, reducing the risk of developing chronic conditions, enhancing your strength, and improving your mobility and function.
However, your adherence to your therapist’s advice can influence your settlement. An insurance company or the court may not believe you when you say the accident caused pain.
However, they’re more inclined to believe you experienced immense pain and suffering after the auto accident if there is an assessment by a professional and licensed physio therapist noting your pain level and movement limitation were at a 10 on a scale of 1-10.
Moreover, insurance adjusters and courts are more inclined to yield to your compensation demands if you can prove that you followed the instructions of a physio.
To ensure your physical therapy does not hinder your settlement, you should:
- Attend all Therapy Sessions – Not only is this good for your overall recovery, but it also provides a strong case for your settlement demands. Conversely, skipping therapy sessions gives the insurance company’s adjuster grounds to lowball your compensation or deny your compensation demands entirely.
- Keep All the Records of Your Visit – Insurance companies rely heavily on medical records to determine how hurt you are. Additionally, your medical record provides clear and concise proof that your accident caused physical and mental harm as you have to spend time and effort undergoing physical recovery. As such, you keep all the medical records related to your physical therapy.
- Keep A Journal that Documents Every Session – Alongside attending all the physical therapy sessions, keep a journal documenting your experiences, especially regarding the pain and suffering you experience. Log your thoughts on your recovery process and how the accident and recovery process affect your daily tasks, including work and hobbies.
With years of experience handling post-car accident recovery for many patients, you can trust our personnel to help document your recovery process and its toll on your life.
We’ve invested in effective communication, ensuring we remind our patients of upcoming appointments. This minimizes missed sessions and enhances your course for rightful car accident compensation.
Georgia Spine & Orthopaedics: The Best Columbus Physical Therapy Services Provider
It’s common for accident victims to experience nagging pain for months after the accident. What’s worse is that the limited mobility, soreness, swelling, and stiffness may accompany the pain, affecting your quality of life and ability to continue working, learning, or even enjoying your hobbies.
If you’re in such a predicament, you should schedule a visit to Georgia Spine & Orthopaedics for the best Columbus physical therapy services. Do not allow the pain to worsen and cause complications.
Our team of experienced physios is always available to help you make a full post-accident recovery. Call us today on 678-929-4494 to schedule your physical therapy assessment appointment. We also welcome walk-ins!
