The Roseville Disc Center in Roseville, California specializes in treating cervical and lumbar (neck and lower back) injuries to the discs and joint mechanics of the spine. While we have many patients come into our clinic for chronic long term pain resulting from faulty joint mechanics and the resultant disc degeneration, bulging and herniation, we also specialize in treating disc injuries related to trauma. We provide lumbar surgery alternatives in Roseville, CA.
Most of the people who come into our clinic for traumatically induced disc injuries end up in our office because they were injured in a car accident. In an auto accident there is a ton of energy being released. A lot of the energy is absorbed by the crumple zones on the vehicle but depending upon the size of the vehicles and the speed at impact, potentially a lot of the energy from the impact travels inside the vehicle to any loose or movable objects. Books and coffee cups going flying as our bodies rapidly accelerated and then instantly come to a complete stop.
Our heads go flying forward, our necks and upper backs are whipped at a sharp angle due to the seatbelt harness, and our lower backs are forced into an exaggerated hyper extension potentially stretching and tearing ligaments, jamming joints into one another, and dramatically increasing the “inter-thecal” pressure inside the discs.
When these injuries occur, the patient will generally have joint and muscle stiffness, lack of range or motion, local or radiating pain. Some of these signs point to soft tissue damage, others point, more significantly to disc injuries: disc bulges, disc protrusions, and disc herniations. At our Disc Center of America clinic, the doctors are skilled in recognizing the signs and symptoms of these more significant injuries, and triaging the less significant injuries while directing a course of analysis and care to correct more serious disc injuries.
How do you know when you need an MRI for car accident injuries, and other traumas? The doctor must evaluate the motion of the joints, analyze x-rays of the spine to determine if there might be disc involvement, and look for telltale signs of significant disc involvement. This includes
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Local spine pain with coughing, sneezing or bearing down
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Radiating symptoms like pain, tingling, numbness, and weakness that travel down and extremity.
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Exam findings like reduced strength in extremities, reduced reflexes, reduced sensations in extremities.
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Injuries that are extremely slow to heal
All of these are signs of a possible disc injury with or without nerve involvement.
If you have had an injury to your spine that is slow to heal or has any of the signs or symptoms mentioned above please get in to see a spine and disc specialist like the ones at Twin Creeks Health and The Roseville Disc Center as soon as possible.
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