Auto Accident Injuries
Accurate diagnosis and honest care after a collision — from a practice with no stake in your claim, only in your recovery.
Auto Accident Injuries is a symptom. The source is the answer.
In the weeks after a motor vehicle collision, injured people are approached by an entire industry: marketing companies, referral networks, clinics that advertise for accident victims, imaging centers, device vendors, and attorneys — many of them financially connected to one another.
Patients in that position are hurting, frightened, and often unfamiliar with the medical system. They are, in a word, vulnerable. And vulnerable patients are precisely the ones most likely to be over-treated, over-imaged, kept in prolonged treatment, or pushed toward procedures that serve someone else’s interests.
We have no arrangements with anyone. National Pain Centers is physician-owned and independent. We diagnose what’s actually injured, treat it precisely, document it honestly, and get you well. Whatever happens with your claim is between you and your attorney — it has no bearing on the care we provide.
Consider how the incentives run. A clinic that advertises for collision victims profits from a long treatment schedule. An imaging center profits from every scan. A device vendor profits from every implant. A marketing company profits from every referral it places. Some attorneys benefit from documented severity, and some insurers benefit from documented triviality.
The patient is the only party in this arrangement without a financial interest — and the only one whose spine is at stake. That asymmetry is the single most important thing an injured person should understand about the weeks following a collision.
After a collision, a patient’s greatest protection is a physician who has nothing to gain from any outcome except their recovery.
The care we provide — and the practices we refuse
No referral arrangements, ever
We have no financial relationships with attorneys, marketing companies, imaging centers, or device vendors that could influence what we recommend for you. Our recommendations are based on your examination, nothing else.
We don't over-treat or prolong care
Treatment continues as long as it is medically indicated and no longer. Extended treatment schedules that track a claim rather than a clinical need are a well-known abuse in this space. We don’t participate.
We document what is true
Our records reflect precisely what we find — no exaggeration to support a claim, no minimization to satisfy an insurer. An honest record is the one that holds up.
We don't rush toward surgery, implants, or unnecessary imaging
These are legitimate tools for the right patient at the right time, and genuine harms when deployed early or unnecessarily. We find the root cause, treat it, and rehabilitate it first.
We never prescribe opioids as a strategy
Dr. Joshi has never prescribed OxyContin or oxycodone in over three decades of practice. He predicted the opioid epidemic before it was acknowledged. Accident victims were among those most harmed by it.
We take whiplash seriously
Patients whose pain persists after a “minor” collision are routinely disbelieved. Whiplash injures facet joints, ligaments, and nerves — real structures, identifiable with the right diagnostic work.
What can cause auto accident injuries
Below are the conditions we most commonly identify and treat. Many patients have more than one contributing source at the same time — which is precisely why careful diagnosis matters.
Common Collision Injuries
Whiplash-Associated Disorder
Rapid acceleration-deceleration injures cervical facet joints, discs, ligaments, and muscle simultaneously. Whiplash pain that persists beyond expected healing is usually driven by a specific injured structure — most often the facet joints — which can be identified and treated.
Cervical & Lumbar Facet Injury
The most common source of persistent post-collision spine pain, and one that frequently does not appear on imaging. Diagnostic medial branch blocks confirm it definitively.
Disc Herniation & Radiculopathy
Collision forces can herniate a disc, compressing a nerve root and producing radiating pain, numbness, or weakness in the arm or leg.
Post-Traumatic Headache & Concussion
Headache after a collision may originate in the cervical spine, in the occipital nerves, or from concussion. Distinguishing them determines treatment.
Injuries That Are Frequently Missed
Sacroiliac Joint Injury
A common and commonly overlooked source of low back and buttock pain after a collision, particularly with a braced leg at impact.
Occipital Neuralgia & Third Occipital Neuralgia
Post-collision headache frequently arises from these specific nerves. Diagnostic blocks identify them; most practices never look.
Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS)
Can follow even a minor collision injury. Delayed diagnosis is the greatest harm most CRPS patients suffer, and time matters enormously.
Central Sensitization
When post-collision pain persists, the nervous system amplifies. Patients are then accused of exaggerating for a claim. They are not — their pain processing has changed, and it is treatable.
Why Accident Victims Are Vulnerable
An Industry Built Around You
Marketing companies, referral networks, clinics advertising for accident victims, imaging centers, device vendors, and some attorneys and physicians operate in financially interconnected arrangements. Patients rarely see the wiring.
Over-Treatment & Prolonged Care
Treatment schedules that follow a claim rather than a clinical need are a recognized abuse. It harms patients through unnecessary procedures, radiation, and delayed recovery.
Being Disbelieved
Persistent pain after a low-speed collision is routinely dismissed. Yet facet joints, ligaments, and nerves are injured by exactly these forces, and the damage is real and identifiable.
The Opioid Legacy
Collision victims were prescribed opioids at devastating rates. We were warning about that outcome in the 1990s.
What Good Care Looks Like After a Collision
Accurate Diagnosis, Not Reflexive Treatment
Persistent post-collision pain has an identifiable source — most commonly the facet joints. Finding it precisely is what makes treatment work, and what makes a treatment schedule medically defensible.
Objective Functional Measurement
Collision patients are doubted by default. Objective, wearable-free movement data documents genuine impairment and genuine recovery — a protection for the honest patient.
Treatment That Ends When It Should
Care continues while it is medically indicated and stops when it isn’t. A treatment schedule that tracks a claim rather than a clinical need harms patients and corrupts records.
Early, Appropriately Dosed Movement
Whiplash recovers better with early, graded movement than with prolonged immobilization or a collar. Rehabilitation belongs in the plan from the beginning.
When to seek emergency care after a collision
Seek immediate care — call 911 or go to an emergency room — for: loss of consciousness; confusion, vomiting, or worsening headache after head impact; loss of bowel or bladder control; progressive weakness or numbness; severe neck pain after significant impact; difficulty breathing; or abdominal pain and bruising. Some serious injuries declare themselves hours or days later. Do not dismiss new or worsening symptoms.
Diagnosis is a procedure, not a guess
Imaging alone rarely provides the answer. Findings of degeneration are extraordinarily common in people with no pain whatsoever — so an abnormal image doesn’t prove we’ve found the culprit. Conversely, some of the most treatable causes may not appear on imaging at all.
So we build the diagnosis from several converging sources:
01 — A genuinely thorough history and physical examination
Mechanism of impact, symptom evolution, and a careful spinal and neurologic examination. Our visits are longer than the industry norm — which matters especially when the injury is real but invisible on imaging.
02 — Appropriate, justified imaging
We order what the clinical picture requires — no more. Over-imaging is endemic in this population and produces incidental findings that lead to unnecessary treatment.
03 — Virtual MSK Movement Assessment
Objective, wearable-free measurement of how you actually move. For patients routinely accused of exaggerating, objective functional data is an honest and powerful record of genuine impairment — and of genuine recovery.
04 — Diagnostic nerve blocks
The definitive test. Anesthetizing the medial branch nerves, occipital nerves, or a specific joint confirms the pain generator with a precision no scan can match — and provides objective evidence that the injury is real.
This is the difference between treating a picture and treating a patient. We confirm the source before committing you to a therapeutic procedure.
Precise, non-opioid, physician-performed care
Once we know the source, treatment can be targeted. Every procedure is performed personally by Dr. Joshi, using low-dose imaging, non-opioid sedation when appropriate, and hand-selected medications and products. We do not delegate procedures, and we do not use opioids as a treatment strategy.
Medial Branch Blocks & Radiofrequency Ablation
For confirmed facet-mediated post-collision pain — the most common cause of persistent whiplash pain. Diagnostic blocks confirm the source; ablation can provide relief lasting many months to years.
Dr. Joshi developed and performs a single-needle lateral approach for cervical medial branch blocks and ablation, using smaller-gauge needles and longer-duration, lower-temperature, tissue-sparing lesions. Precision instead of destruction.
Occipital & Third Occipital Nerve Blocks
For post-traumatic headache arising from the neck and its nerves — a specific, identifiable, and highly treatable cause that most practices never investigate.
Epidural Steroid Injections
For radiculopathy from a collision-related disc herniation.
We do not perform cervical or thoracic transforaminal epidural steroid injections, where we consider the risk of catastrophic injury unacceptable. We use safer approaches to achieve the same goal. In the lumbar spine, Dr. Joshi pioneered a blunt-needle transforaminal technique that reduces the risk of intravascular and intraneural injury. Declining a billable procedure on safety grounds is exactly the kind of decision that defines how we practice.
Sacroiliac Joint Injections & Ablation
For a commonly missed post-collision pain source, precisely diagnosed and treated.
Trigger Point Injections
For the myofascial component of whiplash — treated alongside the underlying joint injury driving the muscular compensation, never instead of it.
Ketamine Infusion Therapy
For post-collision CRPS and pain amplified by central sensitization. We built America’s first surgery-center-based outpatient ketamine program.
Rehabilitation & Recovery Programming
Whiplash recovers best with early, appropriately dosed movement rather than prolonged immobilization. Our multi-disciplinary team builds rehabilitation into every plan.
Honest Documentation
Clear, accurate records reflecting exactly what we find — provided to the appropriate parties without shading in any direction.
Objective Functional Documentation
The Virtual MSK Movement Assessment produces objective data on how you actually move — an honest record for a patient whose credibility is questioned simply because a claim exists.
What We Refuse to Do
We do not maintain referral arrangements with attorneys, marketing companies, imaging centers, or device vendors. We do not extend treatment to match a claim. We do not over-image. We do not prescribe opioids as a strategy. We do not rush toward implants or surgery.
We don't rush to implant
A spinal cord stimulator is a legitimate tool for the right patient at the right time. But it’s an implant, and we treat it as a genuine last resort — not an early default reached for after a couple of quick attempts. First we find the root cause, address it, and rehabilitate it. Only when the better options are truly exhausted do we consider going there.
The same procedure is not the same procedure
Two practices can list the same procedure on a website and deliver profoundly different experiences, risks, and outcomes. Here is what changes when the details are done right.
Performed personally by Dr. Joshi
Never delegated to a technician, resident, or rotating staff. You’re treated by the physician who developed and teaches the technique — and in image-guided procedures, the difference between physicians is measured in millimeters.
Dramatically less radiation
Pulsed, low-dose imaging and a few precisely targeted spot images instead of continuous live X-ray. Based on our own procedural dose data, this reduces radiation exposure by at least 50% — and often far more — versus conventional continuous fluoroscopy, with no compromise in accuracy. For conditions treated repeatedly over years, that difference compounds.
Non-opioid sedation
When sedation is used, we use ketamine-based sedation, not fentanyl. Opioid sedation exposes you to unnecessary opioids, can complicate workplace drug testing, and can actually increase pain sensitivity. Ketamine can do the opposite.
Smaller needles, tissue-sparing lesions
Precision means we don’t need to be destructive to be effective — smaller-gauge needles and lower-temperature, longer-duration ablation that spares the healthy tissue around the target.
We actually numb you first
Thorough local anesthesia of skin and underlying tissue before the procedure begins. It takes an extra minute. We take it.
Independent, and obsessive about quality
Nearly four out of five U.S. physicians now answer to a corporate owner. We’re physician-owned, so our only incentive is your outcome. What a practice refuses to do tells you as much as what it offers.
Auto Accident Injuries, answered
Because the forces involved in even a low-speed collision are sufficient to injure cervical facet joints, ligaments, and nerves — structures that often don’t appear on X-ray or MRI. Persistent pain after a minor collision is common, real, and diagnosable with the right tools. Being told nothing is wrong usually means no one looked properly.
We provide honest, thorough documentation to appropriate parties in your claim. What we do not do is maintain referral arrangements or financial relationships with attorneys, marketing companies, or imaging centers. Our recommendations are based on your examination alone.
No. Treatment continues as long as it is medically indicated and no longer. Prolonged treatment schedules that track a claim rather than a clinical need are a recognized abuse in this space, and they harm patients. We don’t participate.
No. Dr. Joshi has never prescribed OxyContin or oxycodone in over three decades of practice, and he warned of the opioid epidemic before it was acknowledged. Accident victims were among those most harmed by it. We treat the source of pain instead.
Because the risk of catastrophic injury is not acceptable to us. Safer approaches accomplish the same therapeutic goal. We would rather decline a billable procedure than expose a patient to a risk we wouldn’t accept for our own families.
That is extremely common after a collision, and it does not mean your pain isn’t real. Facet joints, the SI joint, and the occipital nerves frequently generate severe pain without showing anything on imaging. Diagnostic nerve blocks can confirm the source objectively.
Promptly, even if symptoms seem mild. Some injuries declare themselves over hours or days, and early accurate diagnosis prevents both under-treatment and the nervous-system sensitization that follows prolonged untreated pain.
Generally not, beyond any brief period a treating physician specifically directs. Prolonged immobilization weakens the supporting musculature and slows recovery. Early, appropriately graded movement produces better outcomes for most whiplash patients.
Because collision claims can pay for extended treatment schedules, and because injured people are motivated, frightened, and unfamiliar with the system. That is precisely the dynamic that produces over-treatment. We are independent, physician-owned, and have no arrangements with anyone.
Low-speed collisions generate forces well capable of injuring cervical facet joints, ligaments, and nerves — structures that rarely appear damaged on standard imaging. Diagnostic nerve blocks can confirm the pain generator objectively, which is often the most useful evidence a patient can have.
Find out what's actually causing your pain.
A precise diagnosis is the beginning of a real solution. Let’s find your pain generator — and treat it.
This page is provided for general educational purposes and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment, nor does it create a physician-patient relationship. Individual results vary, and no specific outcome is promised or guaranteed. Radiation-reduction figures reflect National Pain Centers’ own procedural dose data compared with conventional continuous-fluoroscopy technique. Certain regenerative therapies are considered emerging or investigational and are not FDA-approved for all uses. Always consult a qualified physician regarding your medical condition. If you are experiencing a medical emergency, call 911.