Laying the foundation first requires a thorough health history and evaluation. This will include discussing your current condition and any relevant past issues followed by an orthopedic and neurological evaluation as well as any necessary x-rays. Determining the nature and extent of your condition is critical to beginning the process of treatment. A treatment plan will be provided to you that will begin first with:
Relief Care
Phase 1: Relief Care
If you are in pain when you come into our office, the first objective is to help you feel better. Your care will be determined by the nature of the injury or the condition, its severity, by whether or not it is acute or chronic, and other factors that the Doctor will lay out for you. The Doctor will ensure that you are very much involved in all aspects of your care.
As relief from injuries subsides, Dr. Wallace will address the need for supportive care; care to support your gains and to correct any underlying issues that may have been identified. This transition we would call:
Phase 2: Corrective/Restorative Care
During the corrective care phase, muscles and other tissues are allowed to heal more completely, thereby helping prevent injury. Re-establishing a healthy foundation from which to build upon is a process. Chiropractic is physical medicine, and much like going to the gym, it takes time, effort and patience to make changes in the body. Attaining flexibility and balance is primary prior to developing an appropriate and sustainable conditioning program. The Doctor will very much introduce to you a rehabilitative program that is unique to your needs, is appropriate to your lifestyle and health, and is sustainable. Frequency of care continues to taper as your body restores and corrects. At this point, how often you are adjusted and for how long is very much relative to your individual overall health status and again, the severity and the type of injury. Not all body parts, and not all people, heal and correct at the same rate.
As health is achieved and not just mere symptom relief, many people desire to maintain that optimum feeling of physical and mental well-being. Sustaining that new found energy and sense of well-being, or new found freedom in merely being healthy and well we refer to as:
Phase 3: Wellness Care
At the point your body has fully healed, it is important to come in for periodic adjustments for maintenance of health and wellness. Usually, this only requires a quick visit to the chiropractor 1-4 times per month, based on your lifestyle and goals. This again is relative to one's own unique health care needs and issues they possess.
X-ray studies
Your specific condition may require us to take a weight bearing x-ray to help develop the most effective treatment plan for you. You may bring a copy of your x-rays from other offices or hospital to your first visit for the doctor to review. In this case there may not be a need for x-rays within our office if the x-rays are weight bearing and within one year from the treatment date. When X-rays are required, only the necessary views are taken. The reason for x-rays is the following:
Additionally, x-rays are instrumental in helping the Doctor provide you with specific and precise chiropractic care. They allow both the patient, and the Doctor to develop reasonable and practical expectations for outcomes of care - both near term and long term.
“Chiropractic is a health care discipline that emphasizes the inherent recuperative powers of the body to heal itself without the use of drugs or surgery.”
Your nervous system controls every cell of your body. Nerve impulses flow from the brain, down the spinal cord, and to every organ and tissue. Impulses sent back to the brain confirm that the body is working as it should. When your nervous system does not function right, neither will you.
Poor spinal alignment and/or mobility can interfere with this exchange of information by irritating adjacent nerves. The result of irritated nerves is degraded or distorted messages to and from your brain. Chiropractic care helps restore the integrity of the nervous system by reducing interference caused by poor spinal alignment and/or mobility. Chiropractic care is safe at all ages.
Greeting
Upon entering our office, you will be greeted by our friendly, helpful staff. They will be a compassionate guide to help in making your experience at our office easy and relaxing!
Upon entering the office, we have some paperwork for you to fill out. The paperwork provides us with general information about yourself and your condition.
Once the paperwork has been completed, you will have a consultation with the doctor in a comfortable consultation exam room to discuss your health-related problems, concerns, as well as potential treatment options.
In order to determine what your actual problem is, the doctor will ask you various questions related to your condition. Next, a number of specialized tests will be performed to determine which tissues are affected and to what extent.
Same Day Treatment Once finished with the examination and all appropriate studies, patients will be placed into a treatment room where the doctor will review the x-ray results and provide treatment. This may include spinal adjustments, physical therapies, and/or soft tissue therapies.
Prior to leaving, patients will be given instructions on certain activities or procedures to be conducted at home. This may include ice or heat application instructions, avoidance of certain activities or positions, as well as home exercises and/or stretches.
You will be given a convenient appointment time for your follow-up visit. Generally speaking, patients are seen within 1-2 days and are provided with a complete review of findings. Treatment options for your condition will also be discussed during this time.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
How Does Chiropractic Work?
Chiropractic works by restoring your body’s inherent ability to be healthy. When your body is under the proper control of your nervous system, all the cells, tissues, and organs of your body are designed to resist disease and ill health.
The chiropractic approach will give you better health by creating proper balance and function throughout the body; improved spinal function means improved nervous system function. The goal of a Chiropractor is to remove interference that may be impairing normal health by using effective, gentle and specific chiropractic adjustments that will allow your body to heal itself.
What is An Adjustment?
A chiropractic adjustment is the art of using a specific force in a precise direction, applied to a joint that is subluxated, “locked up,” or not moving properly.
The purpose of this safe and natural procedure is to eliminate interference to the nervous system, improving spinal function and overall health. An adjustment is a specifically directed force, normally by hand designed to ‘unlock’ the subluxated vertebrae to return normal motion and alignment to the spine. There are a variety of different methods used in Chiropractic to analyze and adjust the spine.
Are All Patients Adjusted The Same Way?
No, each patient’s has a unique spinal problem.
What is a Subluxation? (Or Spinal Fixation?)
A Vertebral Subluxation or Spinal fixation is the improper motion or position of the moving bones of the spine that creates nerve irritation or interference.
When a vertebra doesn't function properly, it can also cause mechanical stress which accelerates wear and tear on surrounding spinal muscles, ligaments, discs and joints. Pain, tenderness, inflammation, decreased mobility and muscle spasms can soon follow.
Because of the direct relationship between the spine and nerve roots, vertebral subluxations can impair nerve function and lead to decreases in the communication within the body’s nervous system. This process can eventually jeopardizes the overall health and wellness of the individual.
Could I Have A Subluxation/Spinal Fixation?
Because the nervous system innervates (supplies) every organ and tissue within your body, interference and distortion of this vital communication has far-reaching consequences. Some of the more common consequences include:
Can I Adjust Myself?
No. Since a chiropractic adjustment is a specific force, applied in a specific direction to a specific joint, it is virtually impossible to adjust oneself correctly and accurately.
It is possible to turn or bend or twist in certain ways to create a “popping” sound that sometimes accompanies a chiropractic adjustment. Unfortunately, this type of joint manipulation is usually counterproductive, often making an already unstable spine even more unstable, and can sometimes be dangerous. Adjusting the spine is not a ‘do-it-yourself’ job.
Is Chiropractic Care Addictive?
No. If it were there would be more healthy people around and chiropractors would not get patients who last saw a chiropractor a few years ago when their back went out. It is possible to get used to feeling more balanced, less stressed, and more energetic as a result of regular chiropractic care.
Chiropractic care is not addictive; but good health is.
When Will I Feel Better?
Most people respond fairly quickly to their Chiropractic treatments; within a few weeks, the majority of their acute symptoms (usually pain, or limited mobility) have subsided. But, because soft tissues take longer to heal, your progress is not necessarily indicated by how you feel. After the acute phase of injury is when the real work begins, and it depends on you!
Your body has adapted over time to the soft tissue (muscle, tendon, and ligament) damage caused by uncorrected improper spinal function. Corrective care will involve chiropractic adjustments, as well as stretches and exercises aimed at retraining your soft tissues, breaking them of faulty patterns. Without corrective and continued chiropractic care, these soft tissues are predisposed to resuming unhealthy patterns, potentially leading to significant injury relapse. Wouldn't you want to keep the good spinal alignment you worked so hard to achieve?
Continuing with wellness, chiropractic care encourages more complete healing, which helps to ensure a lasting recovery.
Enspire Manager
