Chesterfield is one of the better-served places in the region for a concussed teenage athlete. Washington University Orthopedics runs concussion testing in Chesterfield, and there are sports medicine practices in the area doing careful work. That coverage is real — and it is narrower than it looks.
The gap is adults, not athletes
Sports concussion pathways are built around a person with a baseline test on file, a trainer who saw the hit, a graded return-to-play protocol and a season to get back to. Almost none of that applies to a 47-year-old rear-ended on Olive who has no baseline, no witness, no protocol, and a job that will not pause.
The adult presentation is also different. Recovery is slower on average, pre-existing migraine and disrupted sleep are common, and metabolic conditions that affect healing — diabetes, obesity, sleep apnea, vascular disease — are routinely excluded from the athlete studies the whole field is built on. See how we approach treatment.
If nobody witnessed it
A sideline assessment has an observer. A collision on the highway usually does not. That absence gets treated as an absence of injury, when it is only an absence of a witness — and it is why the history has to be taken carefully rather than checked off.
Where we fit alongside the sports programs
If your child is an athlete with a baseline test and a return-to-play question, a sports medicine program is a reasonable place to be. If you are an adult whose injury came from a crash, a fall or work, who never lost consciousness, and who has been told the scan was normal and to give it time — that is the patient we are built around. See why no loss of consciousness changes nothing.
Common questions
Who is the best doctor to see for a concussion?
It depends on the injury. A young athlete with a baseline test is well served by a sports medicine concussion program. An adult injured in a collision or a fall, particularly with persistent symptoms and no loss of consciousness, needs someone who will examine the vestibular and oculomotor systems directly rather than manage a return-to-play timeline.
Can you recover completely from a concussion?
Most people do. In high-school surveillance data, 83.4% of concussed athletes had symptoms resolve within a week. A minority do not, and being in that minority is not evidence the symptoms are imagined. See long-term effects.
Do I need a referral?
Not with us. Some concussion clinics in the region require a physician referral before they will schedule. You can call us directly.
Getting here from Chesterfield
Concussion Center
4477 Woodson Rd, Suite 105, St. Louis, MO 63134
(314) 887-5866
Monday–Friday, 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Chesterfield is west of the office along the I-64 and Page corridors; most patients come east on Page and exit at Woodson Rd.