Since the advent of the wheel, there have been plenty of accidents to go around, so it isn’t that uncommon to see people of all ages suffering from chronic pain. Statistics show that up to 85% of Americans will suffer chronic back pain at some point in their lives.1  Furthermore, 31 million Americans will experience low-back pain at any given time, while up to half of all working Americans admit to having back pain symptoms each year.4  With statistics like these it’s easy to see why pain management is a necessity for so many Americans.  Listed below, are more interesting facts you should know about back pain.

• After the common cold, back pain is the top reason for visiting the doctor in the U.S.
• An upwards of 50 billion dollars is spent each year trying to fix back problems. 3
• 30-40 percent of all workplace absences are because of back pain.
• Approximately 25% of adults 20 years and older, reported having lower back pain lasting at least one whole day in the past three months. 5
• Back pain is the number 1 cause of disability in the US for those under 45. 2
• Most cases of back pain are not caused by serious conditions like arthritis, infections, fractures or cancer.

As you can see, whether you are young or old, back pain shows no favoritism and can affect any one at any age.  If you or a loved one falls into any of these statistical categories and you need a pain management doctor in the DFW area, visit WOLMED and set up an appointment today.

References
1. Orthopedic Clinics of North America, Volume 35, Issue I, Pages 1-5 S. Pai, L. Sundaram
2. Bigos S, et al. Acute Low Back Problems in Adults, Clinical Practice Guideline No. 14. Rockville, MD: U.S. Public Health Service, U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, AHCPR Pub. No. 95-0642, Dec. 1994.Eyerman, Edward MD. Journal of Neuroimaging. June 1998
3. John P. Kostuik, MD, and Simeon Margolis, MD, Ph.D. Low Back Pain and Osteoporosis. The John Hopkins White Paper on Low Back Pain and Osteoporosis, 2002.
4. Vallfors B. Acute, Subacute and Chronic Low Back Pain: Clinical Symptoms, Absenteeism and Working Environment. Scan J Rehab Med Suppl 1985; 11: 1-98.
5. National Center for Health Statistics. Health, United States, 2006, Special Feature on Pain With Chartbook on Trends in the
Health of Americans. Hyattsville, MD.

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In 2009 more than 1.5 million people were injured in auto accidents in the US.  That breaks down to a person being injured in an auto accident every 20 seconds.  With so many people getting hurt every day it’s easy to forget the number of accidents occurring each year has been on a steady decline due to better education, laws and safety features for cars.  While 1.5 million injuries a year is a large number, how many more people were injured and didn’t know it until it was too late to get insurance to cover it.  Listed below are 7 reasons you should always see a doctor after a car wreck even if you don’t feel hurt.

1. Many injuries may not cause pain immediately
2. Waiting for symptoms to arise can lead an insurance company to deny your injury occurred
3. Undetected internal Injuries can lead to serious problems or death if untreated so let a doctor check you out
4. Even a small accidents can cause serious injury in an auto accident even at low speeds
5. Treatment of injuries however small can prevent permanent physical damage like chronic back pain from occurring
6. Getting treated right after the accident will usually cost you very little, but waiting could cost you thousands
7. You might need an attorney and a good auto injury doctor can usually recommend a good one

If you or a loved one has been injured in an auto accident or if you feel you haven’t and just need peace of mind visit http://www.wolmed.com/contact_us/ to set up an appointment to speak with our pain management doctors.

Wolmed, pain management doctors, auto injury doctor, auto accidents, auto accident injury statistics, physical therapy, chronic back pain, auto injury dallas, auto injury denton, car wreck doctor, car wreck dallas, car wreck denton

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It’s a safe to bet that if you own a cell phone you have at one time or another used it while driving.  While most of us are guilty of this heinous crime at one time or another, most of us would like to think we did so responsibly.  While there are no laws in Texas banning all cell phone usage for adults, this is not the case for teenagers.  With an alarming growth of teenage related accidents due to cellphone usage, Texas has banned the use of cell phones and text messaging devices while driving for teens below the age of 18.  Listed below are some teenage driving statistics which should make you happy these laws exist.

2009 Teenage Accident Statistics

• Talking on a cell phone while driving can make a young driver’s reaction time as slow as that of a 70-year-old

• 56% of teenagers admit to talking on their cell phones behind the wheel

• Teens admittedly say that texting is their number one driver distraction

• 34% of drivers under 18 admit to texting while driving

• 48% of young Americans ages 12-17 say they’ve been in a car while the driver was texting

• Each year, 21% of fatal car crashes involving teenagers between the ages of 16 and 19 were the result of cell phone usage

• The AAA reports that car and traffic accidents are the leading cause of death for people ages 15 to 20 years old

If you or a loved one has been involved in an accident because of cell phone usage which has caused you extreme pain, set up an appointment online to see a pain management doctor.  WOLMED Pain Management Clinics are full-service facilities with national accredited programs in rehabilitation. WOLMED is located in two locations; Denton and Dallas. The Denton office and rehab facility is a 24,000 sq. ft. screening, testing and treatment rehabilitation center. The WOLMED location in South Dallas is a fully equipped 8,500 sq. ft. facility. Doctors at both locations will help assist you with a proper pain treatment and rehabilitation program. Pain Management doctors are hard to find but WOLMED doctors will help you manage your pain. For more information please visit www.wolmed.com

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Here’s some not-so-new news:  Most car wrecks happen within just a few miles from home.  I guess we are most wreckless when we are most familiar with our driving surroundings.  And how about this one?  Talking on your cell phone makes you 400% more likely to get into a car wreck.  Get off the phone!  It’s illegal in California to talk on the cell phone or text while driving (unless you’re talking hands-free).  That should be the law in all 50 states.  1 in 4 car wrecks is caused by driving and cell phone usage.

I found an article that says in 2005, the US had 733 car accidents per hour.  That’s an average of nearly 15 car wrecks per hour in each state.  Texas is much larger than the average state, so it’s safe to assume that we had a much higher percentage of those wrecks.  And now more people are texting and driving than ever.  Those numbers are probably much higher.  In 2008, it was reported that at any given moment, over 800,000 Americans were driving and texting or making cell phone calls resulting in nearly 6,000 deaths.  That’s 16 deaths per day due to cell phone use while driving.  In 2009, fatalities decreased to just under 5,500, but injuries resulting from driving distracted were nearly 450,000 people.  That’s about 50 people per hour injured in car wrecks due to distracted driving.  Texting while driving also makes you 6 times more likely to get into an auto accident than driving while intoxicated.

So. . . drive safe.  Get off the phone, stop texting, don’t drink and drive.  Get off the roads when you should otherwise be sleeping after midnight.  Keep your teens out of the car with their friends.  Just because you’re close to home, pay attention.  Familiarity does not equal safety.  Teenagers – YOU ARE NOT INVINCIBLE.  Slow down and pay attention when you are driving – and if you have to have your friends in the car with you, tell them to sit there and shut up.  Drive time is not play time.

And this last one is from Wikipedia:  “Traffic collisions may result in injury, death, and property damage.”  Please be careful.

Sources of information in this article:

http://www.infobarrel.com/10_Common_Facts_about_Car_Accidents

http://www.car-accidents.com/pages/stats.html

http://www.edgarsnyder.com/car-accident/cell-phone/statistics.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_collision

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We also believe that dollar amounts in settlements are higher when injured patients come to us for personal injury treatment.  WOLMED doctors are experts in documenting personal injury cases so that you can get better and get a fair settlement.  Attorneys prefer our medical records over other doctors because they are so detailed that insurance adjusters are able to give better settlements.  Our doctors document the mechanism of injury in the initial history and physical and throughout treatment, they document the duration and seriousness of all of your symptoms.  We’re able to accurately document both the physical and symptom diagnoses on claim forms and in documentation to help adjusters give fair settlements.

Examples of physical diagnoses are:  lumbar strain, contusion, herniated disk, knee strain, rotator cuff tear, etc.  Symptom diagnoses are things like:  sleep disturbance, headaches, dizziness, muscle spasm, and more.  Being able to fully document all of these areas is critically important to the outcome to a personal injury case.

WOLMED patients achieve excellent outcomes in all aspects of their auto injury.  If you or anyone you know was hurt in an auto accident, give WOLMED a call.  You may also need a personal injury attorney.  If you don’t know who to call for legal advice, we can recommend an attorney to you.  At WOLMED, we can help you with every aspect of your auto injury.  We want to be your doctor.

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In a 2008 survey by Nationwide Insurance, 67 percent of people admitted to using a cell phone while driving.  That means that roughly 2 out of every 3 drivers on the road are using their cell phones while driving.  The number one source of driver inattention is use of a wireless device, according to Virginia Tech researchers.  As a result, driving while distracted is a factor in 1 out of every 4 police reported crashes.

A 2005 controlled study of Australian drivers found that cell phone users were four times as likely to get into an accident serious enough to injure them.  The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety reported that phone conversation tasks typically decrease reaction times, travel speeds, and increase lane deviations and steering wheel movements.

Drivers on cell phones cause serious auto injuries.  If you or someone you know was injured in a car wreck due to the other driver being distracted with a cell phone, call WOL+MED today.  We can help you.  Our medical doctors are auto injury experts.  If you think you need a personal injury attorney, we can also help you find the right lawyer for you.  You need a doctor who can help you with all of your auto injury concerns.  We can help you.  We want to be your doctor.

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The safer drivers wake up early to make time for driving slower.  They drive cautiously and defensively so they don’t get into a car wreck that can cause serious injury, property damage, or worse.  The one thing that most people worry about though is not being able to control the “other driver”.

Has this happened to you?  Have you ever been in a car wreck during bad road conditions that could have easily been avoided if the other driver just would have slowed down and been more of a defensive driver, just like you were?  Then, you have to stand out in the rain or snow to exchange insurance information.  You’re cold.  You’re wet.  You’re angry.  You’re injured.

Now what?  You need to see a doctor.  You might even need a lawyer.  You’re going to have unexpected insurance hassles.  You might have to take time off of work and get a rental car.  All because of a wreckless driver!

If you were injured in a car wreck, call WOL+MED.  If you know someone who was hurt in a car wreck, tell them to call WOL+MED.  If you’re one of those wreckless drivers and it’s snowing or raining – SLOW DOWN!

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The #1 contributing factor to these serious injury crashes was failing to control speed, followed by driver inattention (going too fast and not paying attention). 

The following data is the most surprising.  If you were asked what the weather conditions were of most injuries, you would probably say rainy or icy conditions or driving at night.  You would be wrong.  63% of serious injury crashes occurred during daylight hours and 88% happened during dry road conditions.  Less than 7% of serious injury crashes happened during rainy conditions.  Serious injury crashes happened only about 10% of the time when combining wet and icy road conditions.

Finally, the ages of drivers who were in serious injury accidents was not as surprising.  Of those accidents where the driver’s age was reported, 27% were between the ages of 18 and 25, 23% were between the ages of 26 and 35, 19% were 36  to 45, 16% were 46 to 55, and 15% were 56+.

So, what does this data tell us?  For one, watch out for young adults driving too fast in near-perfect conditions.  I always assumed (and was wrong) that most serious injuries happened during poor weather / driving conditions, but everyone knows that the younger drivers are the most at risk for car accidents.

What do you do when you are hurt in a car wreck?  Always call the police and get an accident report.  This is very helpful for your insurance company.  Call 911 if you or someone else is seriously injured.  See a doctor who specializes in auto injuries as soon as possible following the accident.  WOL+MED, for example, can see you the same day as your injury, and we specialize in auto injuries and urgent care.  Also, you might need a personal injury lawyer and believe me, there are some really good ones out there.

Personal Injury Attorneys specialize in dealing directly with your insurance company and with the other driver’s insurance company.  They make sure that all of your injuries and auto damages are fully covered.  Many people think they can do all of this alone, but personal injury lawyers know how to get over the hurdles that some insurance carriers put in the way.  As far as doctor’s bills are concerned, a personal injury attorney will give the doctor a letter of protection (LOP) and this will allow you to get all of the treatment you need with no out-of-pocket cost.  Car accidents are unexpected to say the least.  You’re not planning on having to pay doctor’s bills and auto body expenses.  LOP’s will help you get all of that done with far less financial stress.

WOL+MED knows who the good personal injury lawyers are and we can recommend someone to you who will do the right job for you.  If you or a loved one has been in a serious auto injury, give WOL+MED a call.  We are auto injury experts and we want to be your doctor. 

For more information, visit on the web at www.wolmed.com.

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If you or a loved one requires urgent care or help for a minor emergency, please give WOL+MED a try.  We are an excellent alternative to the sometimes brutal wait times of the emergency room.  Our medical team is always ready to help you.

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