Who knew that injuring one tiny part of the back could cause so much pain and damage?  When car accidents occur, damages obviously follow. Unfortunately, much of the damage is sustained by the bodies of the people involved. Sometimes, a disc in the back can become herniated. Though it is a relatively small injury, the pain and recovery time can significantly impact your life.

There are many treatment options for a herniated disc. The good news is that if the damage is not extreme, the treatment is not either.

Symptoms
Herniated discs often cause a lot of pain, weakness, and numbness in the legs, if there is excessive pressure on a nerve root or on the spinal cord. The goal of treatment is to relieve these tensions. Treatment will get you back into the swing of daily life and allow you to move on freely from your injuries. Treatments will also give you the ability to continually strengthen your back, allowing for the recent injury to heal and preventing future complications.

Therapy
When you sustain an injury such as a herniated disc, ample amounts of rest will be needed. Usually, a doctor will recommend anywhere from one to six months of rest for the injury to heal, so that you can return to an active lifestyle.

Often, a doctor will recommend that you go through physical therapy. Therapy is a great way to become educated on how to take care of the back injury in the best way possible. The physical therapist will teach you how to stretch well and what exercises to do that will give the back the most strength and resistance against future injury.

Medication
Other people might experience a worse kind of injury, and with all the rest, stretching, and strengthening, they still have pain and inflammation. A doctor may end up prescribing pain and anti-inflammatory medication in this situation.

Surgery
If all else fails, surgery may be necessary. Some people suffer too much pain or severe nerve damage that weakens their ability to accomplish simple tasks. If relief hasn’t happened after at least four weeks of non-surgical treatment, that would be the time to consider surgery. The most common surgery performed on those with herniated discs is called a discectomy. In the process, an incision is made and some disc material is removed from the back. This relieves pain and inflammation. After surgery, physical therapy is also recommended to get a patient back to a normal life.

As always, medical treatment, such as these can be expensive. If your injury was the result of a Southern California car accident, you may be entitled to compensation. For a free case evaluation, contact an experienced Santa Monica car accident attorney at Steinberg Injury Lawyers today at 1-800-989-6385.

Be sure to order a copy of our book, 7 BIGGEST MISTAKES That Can Ruin Your California Injury Case.