A car accident throws your whole week off balance, and the pain doesn’t always show up right away. You might feel fine at the scene. Then you wake up the next morning unable to turn your neck. That delay is normal. It’s exactly why getting checked out early matters, even if you think you walked away unhurt.
At our Denver office, personal injury care isn’t something we tacked onto a general chiropractic practice. It’s one of the things we see the most, and we’ve built our process around getting you seen quickly, documented properly for your claim, and treated by a team that isn’t guessing at what’s wrong.
What We Treat After a Car Accident
Auto accidents cause a wider range of problems than most people realize:
- Whiplash and neck strain, often delayed by a day or more
- Soft tissue strain in the back and shoulders
- Headaches starting at the base of the skull
- Jaw pain from the impact
- Hip, knee, and ankle pain
- Joint pain that doesn’t always show up on an X-ray
- Disc injuries and nerve pain, including herniations, sciatica, and radiculopathy
- Shoulder injuries from seatbelt strain, the sudden load a seatbelt places across the shoulder can strain the rotator cuff, and this kind of injury is common and easy to overlook after an accident
Our Denver chiropractors examine patients the same way regardless of how minor the accident felt. Low-speed collisions can still cause real soft tissue damage, and insurance adjusters know the difference between a patient who got evaluated in the first week and one who waited a month. We’re not just treating you. We’re building a record that supports your claim if you need one. For disc or joint injuries in particular, we’d rather bring in X-ray or MRI imaging early than wait weeks to see if things improve on their own.
Because physical therapy and chiropractic care work as one team here, not two separate departments handing you off to each other, your treatment plan reflects both perspectives from the start.
Why Timing Matters
Insurance companies look closely at the gap between the accident date and your first visit. A longer gap can be used to argue your injury wasn’t caused by the crash. Getting in during the first week protects both your health and your claim by documenting causation while the details are still fresh.
We also see a pattern worth mentioning. Patients who feel “mostly fine” a few days after an accident sometimes develop pain weeks later, once the adrenaline wears off and inflammation sets in. An early evaluation catches these delayed injuries before they become chronic problems.
Our Process for Auto Injury Patients
Your first visit starts with a real conversation about what happened, not a rushed intake form. We ask about the direction of impact, your position in the vehicle, and every symptom, including ones that seem minor.
From there:
- We run a full orthopedic exam focused on the injuries auto accidents typically cause
- If chiropractic care is the right first step, we start there
- If physical therapy is what your case needs first, we recommend PT first, your physical therapist is in the building, not a referral to call on your own
- Many patients need both, coordinated together rather than treated as two separate tracks
- If your pain isn’t improving, Dr. Merkow reviews your history and determines the right diagnostic and treatment path moving forward
Sometimes what looks like a shoulder strain can actually be a torn rotator cuff that needs to be evaluated by an orthopedic surgeon. Seeing Dr. Merkow helps make sure everyone is getting the correct diagnostic imaging, especially if injuries aren’t improving as expected with conservative care. He is a spine specialist and practices pain management at Lone Tree Surgery Center, so if further pain management is needed, for example if an epidural for a herniated disc is needed, he can perform all care at the surgery center.
We also handle the paperwork side. We bill your MedPay or auto insurance directly, and if you’re working with a personal injury attorney, our documentation is built to hold up for your case, not just designed to get you out the door.
Dr. Justin Merkow, MD
If your pain isn’t improving as expected, Dr. Justin Merkow, MD, our medical specialist for auto injury cases and a spine specialist and pain management doctor, reviews your history and imaging and determines the right diagnostic and treatment path moving forward. He’s also the physician who performs every PRP and BMAC stem cell injection we offer, by internal referral only.
Book Your Denver Appointment
Fill out our form to request an appointment, and our team will be in touch to confirm your visit.
Therapies and Services: Additional Care We Offer
Manipulation is one part of how we treat you, not the whole toolkit. Conservative care is our starting point for nearly every auto injury, and depending on what your exam shows, your plan might also include:
- Dry needling for muscle tension and trigger points
- Massage therapy, with several massage therapists on staff
- ART (Active Release Technique) and Graston Technique for soft tissue restrictions
- Spinal decompression for disc-related issues
- Shockwave therapy and Class IV laser for tendon and soft tissue healing
- Flexion distraction for lower lumbar mobility
If conservative care isn’t enough to resolve your symptoms, that’s when Dr. Merkow’s evaluation and, if appropriate, further diagnostic imaging or pain management come into the conversation, not as a first step, but as the next one.
Common Injuries We See From Denver Accidents
A few patterns show up again and again in our Denver office:
- Whiplash. The sudden back-and-forth motion strains the neck muscles and ligaments in a way that often doesn’t hurt until the day after.
- Lower back pain. Especially common in rear-end collisions, where the body absorbs impact through the spine.
- Ankle pain. The ankle is under a lot of load being rear-ended when the brake is applied. It’s very important to get this evaluated as soon as possible, because ankle fractures are often overlooked for several months after an accident.
- Knee and hip pain. Positioning at the time of the accident is a big factor, and poor ergonomics while driving can predispose you to serious hip and knee injuries. Imaging is often necessary to make sure no permanent damage has been done.
- Shoulder and jaw tension. If your hands were gripping the wheel at impact, that force travels up through your shoulders. If your head snapped forward, your jaw can take an unexpected hit too.
- Post-accident headaches. Ones that start at the base of the skull and radiate forward are frequently tied to neck injury, not a separate problem.
None of this is unusual. None of it means something is permanently wrong. It just means it needs proper evaluation instead of waiting it out.
Why Accelerate Health for Your Auto Injury Care
Most clinics have a chiropractor calling the shots on your rehab. Here, your chiropractor and your physical therapist are equally in charge of your recovery, and they actually talk to each other about your case, and if a medical evaluation is warranted, Dr. Merkow is part of that conversation too. That matters more after an accident than almost any other type of injury: auto injuries rarely fit neatly into one discipline. A purely chiropractic approach can miss a strength or mobility deficit that PT would catch, and vice versa.
Auto accident cases are typically billed through MedPay or a personal injury claim, and we’ll walk you through exactly how that works for your situation before you commit to anything.
Working With Your MedPay, a Lien, or Attorney
If you’ve hired a personal injury attorney, we’re used to coordinating directly with their office: sending records, confirming visit history, billing on a lien basis where appropriate, and making sure nothing falls through the cracks between your treatment and your case. Our goal is simple. Get you functional again, and make sure the paperwork reflects what actually happened to your body, not a shortcut version of it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Within the first week, ideally within a few days. Even if you feel okay, some injuries take days to show symptoms, and an early evaluation protects your health and documents causation for your claim.
In most cases, yes, through MedPay on your own auto policy, the other driver’s policy, or a personal injury claim. General health insurance typically isn’t used until MedPay is exhausted. We’ll help you understand your specific coverage during your first visit.
Low-speed impacts still cause real soft tissue injuries that don’t always hurt immediately. We recommend getting checked regardless of how the accident felt in the moment.
No. You can schedule directly with us, and we’ll coordinate with your physical therapist, or with Dr. Merkow, if a medical evaluation is needed, right here if your case calls for it.
Often, yes. ER visits focus on ruling out emergencies like fractures or internal injury, not on treating the soft tissue and joint problems that show up in the days and weeks after. A chiropractic and PT evaluation fills that gap, and if your case needs a medical evaluation as well, Dr. Merkow is part of our team here.
Schedule Your Denver Auto Injury Consultation
If you were in an accident and you’re not sure what kind of care you need, that’s a normal place to start. We’ll walk through what happened and figure out the right plan together, whether that’s chiropractic care, physical therapy, massage therapy, a medical evaluation, or several working side by side.