Welcome to “legalease and whatnots”, where I make legal easy. I’m attorney Jessica Woghiren at the JW law firm. I’m here to give you inside tips on what not to do if you’ve been injured in a car accident. Often times clients avoid visiting with a medical provider because they feel they can shake off their injuries. By the time they do, the insurance company views their injuries as a minor or soft tissue injury and may decide to low-ball them when it’s time to settle. I’m here with Dr. Fulbright a chiropractor here in the Atlanta area. She is going to talk about injuries she treats on a daily basis. Dr. Fulbright thank you for being here with us. What are some common injuries you would say you see after a car accident?
*dr. Fulbright*
That’s a good question. Um, A lot of times people may think that there are soft tissue injuries that you mentioned. Soft tissue would be anything besides the bones and the joints, so The muscles. the ligaments, um, even the nerves or the discs. But a lot of times there are non-soft tissue injuries as far as injuries in the bones and the joints and you don’t have to have a broken bone for it to be categorized as a bone or joint injury. So a lot of the times those are the two categories soft tissue but there is also a bone component.
*jessica*
I get this question all the time from my clients. what is the difference between chiropractic treatments and physical therapy?
*dr. Fulbright*
Mmhm, So that kind of adds to the first question that we talked about-the different types of injuries. A lot of times physical therapists will focus on the soft tissue component. They’ll focus on the muscles. A lot of times when there’s a muscular injury it’ll affect the amount of movement that you can do. We use a fancy word, “range of motion”, and basically it describes the amount of movement that a joint has. So physical therapists focus on the range of motion aspects because of the injury to the muscles. But they don’t really address the joints and the bone aspect.
*jessica*
How often should these patients, clients treat and why?
*dr. Fulbright*
Typically in the beginning, right after an accident someone is in a lot of pain and that pain is because of inflammation that’s in the muscles and the joints. So typically to reduce pain, we have people come in quite frequently, about three times a week until we can get that inflammation under control. Now one of the differences between a chiropractic and a medical doctor, chiropractors don’t give medicine. Our medicine is the treatment we do in the office and so that’s why they have to come in a little bit more frequently but reducing pain and inflammation is the main goal especially in the beginning.
*jessica*
Wow! Well thank you for being here with us at legalease and whatnots. For more information on what not to do if you’ve been injured in a car accident, visit our website at theJWlawfirm.com and contact us at 770-817-7624 for a free legal consultation. thank you for watching legalease and whatnots.