Concussion Symptoms After a Car Accident in Providence RI | Cityside Chiropractic

Concussion Symptoms After a Car Accident in Providence RI

Many Providence car accident patients assume that because they did not hit their head — or because their emergency room CT scan was normal — they did not sustain a concussion. Both assumptions can be wrong.

Concussion is a functional injury caused by rapid acceleration-deceleration forces imposed on the brain during a collision — forces that can occur without any direct head contact, and that produce functional neurological changes that standard CT imaging is not designed to detect.

Common Post-Concussion Symptoms After a Providence Car Accident

Symptoms may appear immediately or develop gradually over 24 to 72 hours:

• Headache or a feeling of pressure in the head

• Dizziness or balance problems

• Brain fog or difficulty concentrating

• Fatigue or feeling slowed down

• Light sensitivity or noise sensitivity

• Sleep disturbances

• Irritability or mood changes

• Nausea

• Visual discomfort or difficulty with screen use

• Memory problems or feeling not quite yourself

You do not need to lose consciousness to have a concussion.

Why the Overlap With Whiplash Symptoms Matters

After a Providence car accident, concussion symptoms frequently overlap with cervical spine injury symptoms. Both conditions produce headaches, dizziness, fatigue, and concentration difficulty. This overlap means that a thorough evaluation needs to address both neurological and musculoskeletal factors — not treat every symptom as coming from a single source.

At Cityside Chiropractic, post-concussion objective screening includes RightEye oculomotor assessment, BTrackS vestibular evaluation, and CNS Vital Signs cognitive screening — alongside the standard orthopedic and neurological examination that evaluates the cervical spine simultaneously.

Why Normal Imaging Does Not Rule Out Concussion

CT and MRI are designed to identify structural problems — fractures, bleeding, and gross tissue damage. Concussion involves functional changes in how the brain processes information — changes that do not produce visible structural damage on standard imaging.

A normal CT after a Providence car accident rules out a structural emergency. It does not rule out concussion.

Objective Post-Concussion Screening at Cityside Chiropractic

RightEye measures smooth pursuit accuracy, saccadic function, fixation stability, and visual reaction time against age-matched normative databases. Oculomotor dysfunction is among the most sensitive objective indicators of post-concussion neurological involvement.

BTrackS quantifies postural stability and vestibular function with a standardized score compared to normative values — converting the subjective complaint of dizziness into a measured clinical finding.

CNS Vital Signs evaluates processing speed, working memory, and complex attention against normative benchmarks — documenting cognitive involvement objectively.

These findings are documented with specific percentile scores and normative references — giving both your treating providers and your

objective clinical data rather than subjective symptom reports alone.

Call (401) 272-5710 for same-day evaluation at 480 Broadway Providence.

No referral required. Lien basis — no out-of-pocket cost for personal injury patients.