Have you ever suffered a sacroiliac joint injury after a car crash? You may have never heard of it as it usually requires a diagnosis. A sacroiliac joint injury after a car crash is more common than you think, yet often it gets overlooked.
Rear-end car crashes can cause all different types of injuries. Injuries to the neck, back, shoulders, and hip are just a few. Wrists and ankles can also get injuries. These injuries can lead to chronic pain if not addressed in a timely fashion. The reason a sacroiliac joint injury can get missed is that the pain often gets mistaken for hip bursitis, slipped disc, or pinched nerves. If you’re not seeing the right doctor, injuries like this can get missed, and cause pain later on down the road. This is why it is so important to seek a clinic that specializes in post-care crash injuries.
How to know if it is a sacroiliac joint injury
In a sacroiliac joint injury, the patient suffers pain from the lower back and buttocks area. This makes it hard to do simple things like sleep or walk upstairs. The pain and discomfort can last quite a while. Sometimes it is missed altogether only to flare up again if untreated.
This is a hard thing to diagnose and is why it often gets overlooked in patients who suffer injury after a car crash. The reason it gets missed is that the diagnosis is not obvious.
To find out if it is your sacroiliac joint, the test you undergo doesn’t seem to work with conventional methods like MRI, X-rays, or CT scans. Instead, diagnosis is by using an arthrogram and block. The practitioner injects dye into the joint. Then, the patient resumes normal activities while the dye moves through the joint. This helps to determine if the joint is affected.
How to treat injury to the sacroiliac joint
There are many types of treatment for a sacroiliac joint injury. Unfortunately, there is no one size fits all fix. Injection therapies are available using corticosteroid and/or local anesthetic drugs. Some involve the use of medications to induce an inflammatory response. These methods try to strengthen the sensitive ligaments across the joint. There is also radiofrequency denervation treatment. This uses heat to destroy the sensory nerves that supply the SIJ.
Although these treatments may help, they are all considered to be invasive. What we do is focus on eliminating the pain through more non-invasive treatment. This can work on its own or as a complement to the currently applied treatments.
Our goal is to manage pain through nonsurgical and non-medicated means. We use manual therapies like chiropractic adjustments, massage therapy, heat and ice therapy, and exercise.
We also provide strength training to stabilize the SIJ. Specifically, the glutes, as well as the latissimus dorsi muscle, act as stabilizers of this joint. The research about strength training shows it to have successful results.
Choose a clinic that specializes in car crash injuries for maximum care and treatment
A sacroiliac joint injury is a good example of how many injuries go unnoticed. What happens is they do not get covered due to the patient not choosing the right clinic. Don’t let this happen to you.
It’s already hard enough to get adequate compensation for a car crash injury. This is why it is important to get yourself checked out immediately following a car accident. Do it, whether you think you should or not. And find a clinic that specializes in car crashes so you can get the best treatment possible.
So, if you’ve had a car crash injury, whether you think it’s your sacroiliac joint, lower back, or even whiplash, we hope you’ll contact us for help. We don’t skimp on your health. Our goal is to ensure you get the best treatment possible after a motor vehicle collision injury.