STATEN ISLAND, N.Y., June 22, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A Staten Island chiropractor wants area residents to understand the need for immediate spinal evaluations in the wake of an auto accident. According to Dr. Angelo DiMaggio, DC of Touch Stone Rehabilitation & Health Center, auto accident injuries may not cause pain, numbness, stiffness or other symptoms immediately, creating a false sense of wellbeing that promotes critical delays in evaluation and treatment. "The sooner we detect any lurking physical problems from auto accident injuries, the more effectively we can provide natural pain relief," he says.

Dr. DiMaggio notes that even a low-speed collision can cause serious injuries for the occupants of the vehicle. "What might count as low speed for a massive highway vehicle certainly doesn't match up with the human body's capacity for absorbing impacts," he says, adding that the forces transferred in a collision can throw the body forward and backward powerfully enough to create injuries.

Whiplash, he states, is perhaps the most obvious result of such violent motion. The Staten Island chiropractor lists common whiplash symptoms as pain and stiffness in the neck, headaches, tinnitus (ringing in the ears), blurred vision, and dizziness. Whiplash may involve pinched cervical nerves, and torn muscles or connective tissues. He also cites back pain and sciatica from herniated or bulging discs as a common car accident injury.

The chiropractor's clinic typically handles such complaints by performing an evaluation of the spinal column to look for possible subluxations, which Dr. DiMaggio describes as vertebral misalignments that lead to nerve impingements and/or musculoskeletal stresses. "Once we have found the underlying physical abnormality, we can adjust the spine to remove pressure from neighboring nerves and reduce the strain on the muscles. This enables us to provide drug-free pain relief in New York," he explains.

But the urge to seek pain relief in New York, the chiropractor warns, should not be the sole reason to get a chiropractic exam immediately following an auto accident. According to Dr. DiMaggio, some misalignments and other musculoskeletal problems do not register pain for days or weeks after they first appear. "In that time, collections of scar tissue known as adhesions may develop within the soft tissues. These adhesions not only cause significant pain and stiffness of their own, but they can also keep the original damage from ever healing correctly," he says.

Dr. DiMaggio urges patients to get their condition evaluated so that any such lurking auto accident injuries can be corrected as early in the process as possible, saying, "Even if you feel 100 percent great, play it safe and get checked."

In addition to auto accident injury treatment, Touch Stone Rehabilitation & Health Center prescribes chiropractic adjustment, massage therapy, acupuncture, physical rehabilitation, and other natural methods of injury healing and chronic or acute pain relief in New York.