Chiropractic is a health care profession that focuses on the relationship between the body's structure—mainly the spine—and its function, with the goal of correcting alignment problems, alleviating pain, improving function, and supporting the body's natural ability to heal itself. Very rarely will an injury or problem be only skeletal or muscular. Due to the dynamic nature of the body, any treatment needs to be designed with both the skeletal and muscular systems in mind. Without treating both, problems and pains will require more office visits to fix or will never fully go away. On the other hand, addressing both the skeletal and muscular structures can achieve a quicker successful treatment.

Joint mal-alignments are often described as joints being “out.” This is not correct. Typically the joints motion is restricted due to hypertonic muscles, injury, or health conditions that don't allow the joint to go through its full range of motion. This causes weight to be distributed improperly, causing the misalignment of a joint. Joints are meant to be dynamic, not static. If a joint isn’t moving, the body produces inflammation in response, which irritates pain-sensing nerve fibers. The body’s response is to protect the injured area, usually by tightening the surrounding musculature in order to “splint” the joint. This creates a neurological, muscular, and skeletal problem. This is what chiropractic care corrects. Click here to learn more about lower back pain.

What To Expect

We begin with a thorough examination that assesses your areas of concern, as well as carefully considering how your health history could be affecting your problems. Depending on the condition, X-ray may be needed. Only after this initial examination will we offer a recommended course of treatment. Your treatment will consist of chiropractic adjustments, therapies, therapeutic massages, and rehabilitation. We may use physical therapy modalities to help relax soft tissues, provide pain relief, and increase blood flow to the treated areas.

We also use ultrasound, electric stimulation, cryotherapy, and hydrocollator packs to achieve our goals. In order to insure that our treatments are effective after the visit, you will be instructed on therapeutic stretches to help keep the muscle tension reduced. As your condition improves, we will start including exercises that will help with strengthening and stabilizing the injured areas.