How Long Should You Be Sore After A Car Accident (Overview)

How long should you be sore after a car accident?

How should you handle pain after a car accident?

What are the essential elements you should know!

Keep reading as we have gathered exactly the information that you need!

Let’s dig into the consequences of a car accident!

Are you ready?

Let’s get started!

How Long Should You Be Sore After A Car Accident 

In certain cases, you may have a minor car accident and not feel any pain.

However, a few days later, after your body has had time to relax, you start feeling waves of pain and experience soreness or pain.

How long you will be sore after a car accident will depend on many factors such as:

• Your position in the car
• The speed at which the car accident took place
• The size of your car
• If you had your seatbelt on
• The size of the other cars involved in the accident
• Your physical condition
• Your age 

What’s frequent is that a person does not feel any pain or soreness at the moment of the accident.

However, days later, pain starts creeping up.

For example, signs of a traumatic brain injury or spinal cord injury will manifest themselves days after the accident.

We feel different types of pain, such as:

• Sharp pain feeling like a stabbing or shooting pain
• Aching pain that is tolerable but does not go away
• Radiating pain that starts from one location and travels to another
• Throbbing pain that feels like your heart beating at the point of injury 

What should you do if you suffer pain after a car accident?

How long is a car accident recovery time?

In this article, we’ll go over what you should know about pain after a car accident.

Possible Injuries After Auto Accident

What injuries cause soreness after a car accident?

There are many possible injuries that a person can suffer after a car accident.

Here are some of the possible injuries a person can suffer:

• Whiplash injuries
• Soft tissue injuries
• Hairline fractures
• Disc injuries 
• Torn ligaments
• Strained or sprained tendons
• Strained or sprained joints 
• Traumatic brain injuries
• Spinal cord injuries 

Whiplash 

Whiplash injuries are the most common in causing car accident pain.

Whiplash is a neck sprain resulting from a forceful impact of the neck or a sudden movement of the neck.

What’s interesting is that you do not need to be driving at high speeds to end up spraining your neck.

It’s very common to have whiplash injuries when getting into a low-speed car accident.

Here are some symptoms of whiplash:

• Headache
• Neck stiffness 
• Jaw pain
• Fatigue
• Dizziness
• Nausea
• Blurry vision 
• Insomnia
• Depression 

It’s important that you remain attentive to your body and consult a doctor if you feel something that is not normal.

Muscle Soreness 

Muscle soreness is another injury that may manifest itself well after a car accident.

You experience muscle pain after a car accident due to the soreness resulting from the tensing action of your muscles at the moment of the crash. 

Your muscles may also be sore due to your body slamming into the seatbelt or even getting thrown around within the vehicle.

The soreness of the muscle can be felt within any part of your body like the back, arm, leg, or abdomen.

Bruising

Bruising is another type of injury that may be suffered resulting in pain from a car accident.

Some car accident victims will show significant bruises on their bodies caused by their bodies entering into contact with various objects or elements in the car like the seat belt, airbags, or other objects in the car.

Deep bruises take a long time to heal.

Sprains and Strains

Another common cause of injury following an auto accident is sprains and strains to your limbs such as hands, arms, legs.

A driver may experience strains or sprains in the hands or arms, whereas passengers are more likely to have it in their limbs.

Spinal Cord Injuries

Motor vehicle accidents are one of the most common reasons why someone may end up with a spinal cord injury.

Spinal cord injuries are severe injuries to the body and can lead to potential paralysis.

If you feel any of the following symptoms, you should immediately consult a doctor:

• Extreme back pain
• Numbness
• Tingling sensation
• Loss of sensation
• Difficulty walking
• Difficulty breathing
• Loss of bowel 
• Bladder control loss 

Do not neglect these symptoms as you may have suffered a very serious injury without knowing it.

Traumatic Brain Injuries 

Traumatic brain injuries can be anything starting from a headache to something possibly life-threatening.

Brain injuries are serious and should be treated immediately.

It may be difficult to distinguish a simple headache, whiplash, or serious brain injuries.

As a result, if you feel any of the following symptoms or you don’t feel well in general, you should consult a doctor:

• Dizziness
• Confusion
• Loss of consciousness
• Mood changes
• Trouble sleeping 

Car Accident Soreness Days or Weeks After Accident

If you are sore after a car wreck, how long will it take for you to recover from the pain in full?

The recovery time will depend on many factors such as the nature of the car accident, your age, your physical condition, and others.

Generally speaking, you should expect:

• About a few weeks for whiplash injuries
• About six weeks for muscle soreness 
• About six weeks for bruising 
• About six weeks for sprains and strains 

If you do not see improvements in pain within days after the car accident, have consistent muscle pain, don’t feel good, or develop other symptoms, you should consult a medical care professional.

Your doctor will be able to accurately determine what injury you may have suffered and prescribe the proper treatment, such as:

• Pain medication
• Chiropractic therapy
• Cold or heat therapy
• Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation
• Massage therapy
• Physical therapy 
• Surgery
• Epidural steroid injections 

Get Medical Treatment

If you feel sore muscles after a car accident, are in pain, have soreness in your body, you should immediately consult a physician.

Getting the right medical attention and care is crucial to ensuring you minimize, reduce, or eliminate pain after a car accident.

Furthermore, a car accident lawyer may eventually use the medical record if there be a lawsuit filed by you or against you following the car accident.

If you have any of the following symptoms or accident pain, you should immediately consult a doctor:

• Your pain increases with the passing of the days
• You feel confused at times or feel disoriented 
• Your pain does not go away after six weeks following the accident
• You don’t feel an improvement in your pain level a week after the accident 
• You feel shortness of breath
• You feel dizzy
• You have nausea 
• You are unable to sleep 
• Your body aches after the car accident without any improvement 

Document Your Injuries

In many minor car accidents, the victims are not seriously injured and may not experience any pain, soreness, or other injuries even after.

However, others may realize days or even weeks after they may have had a fractured bone, whiplash, or a concussion.

If that happens, you may end up incurring unexpected medical bills and expenses, lost wages, and suffer other economic and non-economic losses.

No matter the reason for the injury, it’s important that you document your injuries so you can keep the necessary records for your employer, insurance company, or even file a personal injury claim against the at-fault party in the accident.

Documenting your injuries means that you should make sure you note down the type of pain you’ve suffered or what type of limitations you experienced in your life.

Take pictures of the various stages of your recovery process.

Consult with your medical care professional and ensure they are made aware of your symptoms so they can perform the necessary tests and give you the right treatment.

If you are sore after a car accident, suffer pain in general, have muscle soreness, or have any other injuries or limitations, you must document every step of your journey from the moment the feelings arise until you are fully recovered.

Legal Compensation

The ideal scenario is that the injuries are minor and you can go back to your daily life.

However, if you feel excessive pain, have chronic pain after the accident, or have suffered other injuries, you may want to consider your legal options.

Just like you consult a doctor after a car accident to verify the extent of the pain, you should consult a personal injury attorney (or car accident lawyer) to understand the legal ramifications of the accident better.

Are you entitled to any compensation?

What should you do to document the car accident?

How should you document your injuries?

There may be many legal consequences resulting from the car accident that you may not be aware of.

A personal injury case or lawsuit has the aim of seeking compensation for damages suffered.

Damages can be direct monetary loss or expenses incurred or non-monetary damages like pain and suffering.

Your personal injury attorney or car accident attorney can help you determine what you may be able to claim in monetary compensation along with compensation for the non-monetary costs such as pain, anxiety, loss of enjoyment of life, and so on.

What you can claim will depend on the applicable laws, however, generally, the courts will consider the following elements:

• How severe are your injuries
• How severe are the pains that you suffered 
• What type of pain did you suffer
• For how long did you suffer pain
• Did your pain interfere with your life
• How were you prevented from doing your typical activities 

Your attorney can advise you on the possibility of recovering damages for:

• Medical bills
• Lost wages
• Pain and suffering
• Loss of companionship 
• Loss of enjoyment 

Although it is not easy to consult an attorney when you are in pain, you should make sure you get the necessary consultation so you are informed as to your rights and obligations.

Takeaways 

So, how long will I be sore after a car accident?

What should I do if I am sore after a car accident?

Let’s look at a summary of our findings in dealing with a sore body after a car accident.

How long should you be sore after a car accident:

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