How Long Will My Recovery Be?

What To Expect During Recovery

Before even beginning treatment, most people want to know what their recovery time will be.  It’s a complicated question with lots of factors, such as when the accident occurred, the severity of the damage, the overall health of the patient, and how consistently the patient attends their treatment sessions.

However, we can give ballpark figures on recovery estimates.  Soft tissue injuries are the damage of muscles, ligaments, and tendons throughout the body, and is the most common type of injury that occurs in automobile accidents.  For soft tissue injuries, the general consensus among medical, sports science, and exercise journals is that a recovery time of up to 12 months with proper treatment before the area is fully healed.

For whiplash, which is soft tissue damage to the neck that occurs when the head jerks violently during a crash, healing time is estimated to be 7 months with proper treatment according to spine magazines and journals.

Most people who have been in a car accident feel significantly better within the first 6 weeks of care, but it’s important to understand what this means.  Even though you may feel like your body is 100% recovered, it is more likely the case that your body is still healing and that adjustments still need to be made, and it’s essential to follow through with the rest of your treatment program.

It’s similar to having braces on your teeth.  You may not feel any pain, but your teeth are slowly and gently being molded into the proper position.   This is what is being done when correcting the spine, neck, pinched nerves, and disc problems.  The right adjustments are being made over time.  In the most severe cases, treatment can last up to 2 years for the patient to be fully recovered.

This is why early diagnosis is so important.  The earlier the injury is diagnosed, the sooner treatment can begin and the better the chances at a full recovery.  When treatment is stopped before you are completely recovered, you risk re-injuring the area, you may not recover your full range of motion, and if the accident was someone else’s fault, you might not get full compensation for all of the treatment you may need.

At Complete Care, we’re dedicated to the successful recovery of all our patients.  After we diagnose your injury, we come up with a comprehensive treatment plan to treat your injury until you are fully recovered.  We don’t want you to merely feel better, we want you to be better.

If you’ve been in an automobile accident, call Complete Care today and get on the road to complete recovery.