Car Crashes Can Lead to Life-Altering Facial Trauma
Car crashes often result in severe, life-changing injuries, including facial trauma. These injuries typically occur when the face collides with the steering wheel, airbags, dashboard, windshield, or other hard objects inside the vehicle. Debris or external objects can also penetrate the vehicle, causing significant facial injuries. If you have suffered facial injuries in a car accident, consult a Columbus car accident lawyer today.
The force and impact of a car crash can cause significant facial trauma. High-speed collisions can cause the head and face to move rapidly, striking interior objects or external debris. The severity of the crash can result in broken glass or flying debris, leading to cuts, lacerations, and permanent scarring.
Examples of the most serious facial injuries people sustain in Columbus car crashes
Car accidents can cause various facial injuries, ranging from minor cuts to lifelong damage. Here are some of the most serious facial injuries sustained in car crashes:
- Facial fractures: Fractures can occur in the nose, cheekbones, eye sockets, and jawbones, making it difficult to eat, drink, swallow, and talk.
- Orbital fractures: These fractures affect the bone around the eye sockets, causing severe pain, altered appearance, and vision problems, often requiring multiple surgeries.
- Facial lacerations: It is common for car accident victims to suffer deep facial lacerations. These often require stitches and surgeries to heal.
- Eye injuries: Eyeballs can be stretched, cut, or punctured, potentially leading to vision loss or blindness.
- Facial burns: If your vehicle catches fire or explodes during a crash, you may experience facial burns. These are very painful injuries that result in permanent scarring and other lifelong complications. Most individuals who have facial burns require around-the-clock medical treatment from burn specialists.
- Soft tissue injuries: Damage to facial muscles, ligaments, nerves, and blood vessels can result in loss of function.
- Dental trauma: Dental trauma is common after a car accident. Due to the impact, you may have missing teeth, chipped or broken teeth, bloody or injured gums, a cut tongue, lip injuries, and more.
- Facial nerve damage: Depending on how severe your facial injuries are, you may have or develop facial nerve damage. When this happens, you may experience paralysis in the face, loss of sensation, and loss of function.
How do I know if I have facial trauma after a car accident?
If you suspect facial trauma following a car accident, look for these signs and symptoms:
- Numbness in the face
- Facial deformity
- Uneven facial bones
- Difficulty of breathing through the nose
- Severe swelling or inflammation
- Bleeding from the face, nose, mouth, or eye sockets
- Vision problems
- Sore or damaged teeth
- Missing or broken teeth
What are the long-term consequences of facial trauma?
Facial trauma from car crashes can lead to long-term consequences that require ongoing adaptation and coping. Some of the long term effects include:
- Chronic pain: Facial injuries can cause persistent pain due to damaged ligaments, muscles, nerves, and joints. This chronic pain can significantly impact the victim’s quality of life.
- Scarring and disfigurement: Scarring and disfigurement are common after facial trauma. Depending on how serious the injuries are, there is a strong possibility that the face will never heal and return to its normal or same appearance before the accident.
- Low self-esteem and psychological issues: Individuals become used to their appearance and how they look, their facial changes from the facial trauma they suffered may affect their self-esteem and cause psychological issues. They may become self-conscious, depressed, avoidant, and even develop post-traumatic stress disorder.
How much are facial injuries worth in a car accident lawsuit?
As with any type of personal injury, there’s no set award amount for facial or dental injuries. However, severe injuries may require not only multiple surgeries, but also reconstructive care. Further, many cosmetic dental procedures are not covered by insurance nor by Medicare. As such, a victim may be required to pay out of pocket for, say, dental implants. The medical expenses alone can be substantial.
There are also added considerations for scarring and disfigurement. In extreme cases, the disfiguring scars may leave a person unable to speak or may necessitate a breathing or feeding tube. People in this position may be unable to work at all, let alone return to their job or chosen profession. Our Columbus car accident lawyers can calculate your wage and income loss, plus the loss of any future income, to ensure that we ask for the true value of this harm.
Facial scarring is typically noticeable, and it can make some folks feel self-conscious. Some may experience depression, anxiety, fear, or other negative emotions. Some may live in chronic pain, both physical and emotional. This, too, is a compensable injury.
If you or a loved one has sustained facial injuries in a car accident, the Columbus car accident lawyers at Soroka & Associates are here to help. We understand the complexities of these cases and are dedicated to securing the compensation you deserve. Contact us by completing our contact form to schedule a free and confidential case review in Columbus.