People have been seeking chiropractic care for pain relief for decades. Whether you’ve developed some serious neck pain from long days at the office or you’re looking for improvement in healing from injuries, chiropractic treatments can have a major impact on chronic pain sufferers. But, when does a chiropractic treatment plan come to an end? As a patient, it is important to understand when you may need additional sessions, what your ideal chiropractic adjustment frequency is, and even when it’s time to stop treatment with your health care provider.
Chiropractic Care
Visits to your family chiropractor can come with a wide variety of positive effects for your family members and their lives. Each appointment will most likely follow a similar structure with treatment sessions.
Your first chiropractic session will begin with an evaluation of your body and a chat about the issues you’ve been experiencing so your provider can create a custom care plan for you. From there, your chiropractor will choose a chiropractic technique that will work best and start an initial adjustment.
For further treatments, chiropractic care focuses on the use of spinal manipulation to promote overall alignment within the body. These gentle adjustments throughout life can keep the body flowing and functioning properly. These corrective care techniques can help to eliminate chronic pain and keep pain from coming back to interfere with patients’ busy lives.
Chiropractic Techniques
- Diversified Technique: This method is thought to be the most commonly used technique in chiropractic care. This technique has the hands administering gentle thrusting motions to move the vertebrae back into proper alignment.
- Thompson Technique: This technique, also known as the drop table method, utilizes an adjustment table with dropping capabilities. Most commonly, this technique is used to adjust the pelvis. Part of the table is slightly raised and will drop down as the chiropractor makes a thrusting movement. This method provides a comfortable adjustment for patients.
- Activator Method: This technique uses a tool called an Activator to aid in comfortable adjustments. This tool delivers gentle pulses and allows the provider to make precise adjustments. This gentle method works well for children, seniors, and those who are new to chiropractic care and are feeling nervous about their first session.
- Webster Technique: This method puts a focus on the sacral area and its alignment with the pelvis. Adjustments are made to realign the pelvis and sacrum, helping with lower pain back among other issues. This technique is especially helpful for pregnant women.
Benefits of Chiropractic Care
One of the main reasons so many suffering from pain choose chiropractic care is that it provides an effective treatment option without invasive medical intervention or pain meds. No matter the pain or injury type, consistent sessions with a chiropractor can provide safe and family friends ways to move towards a happy and healthy lifestyle.
Safe and Non-Invasive
Chiropractic treatments are safe and effective for all members of the family, from infants to seniors. There aren’t many other treatment options that are genuinely available for anyone, no matter their age or health status. The gentle and hands-on nature of this form of care makes it a pain relief option for all people.
Low Maintenance
While chiropractic treatment plans do typically require follow-up sessions, each additional session is typically easily spaced out and convenient for busy lives. This treatment doesn’t require long, arduous sessions or long recovery periods. This makes a chiropractic session plan a wonderful option that fits into any lifestyle.
Stopping Chiropractic Care
While a visit to your family chiropractor is a great option when you’re experiencing pain or injury, it is still only one of the medical options available. Sometimes, the best thing to do for your body is to stop chiropractic treatment and evaluate other options with a doctor. Know the signs of when your best care for symptoms or maintenance care needs to include a primary care physician or other options.
Pain Increases
It’s difficult to know exactly what is causing actual pain in the body. We can assume a common reason pain usually occurs based on a patient’s lifestyle or reports for an injury, but initial treatment planning is still going to be subject to some changes as recovery progresses.
When dealing with chronic pain or even new aches that just pop up, effective chiropractic care should see some improvement as early as a single session. If you’ve been on a chiropractic treatment plan and your pain has worsened, there may be an underlying injury that needs other medical intervention before pain can begin to go away. Reach out to your doctor if your pain increases, even after you’ve tried chiropractic sessions, and stop all treatments until you learn more about your issue.
Absence of Improvement
Pain might not be getting worse, but it also isn’t getting any better. Chiropractic adjustments are highly effective at treating pain and discomfort caused by misalignment in the body, but they aren’t equipped to treat issues with a different root cause. While they can help heal other issues by improving blood flow and overall function of the body, you need to reach out to a doctor for an evaluation if your symptoms are not improving after a couple of weeks or a few courses of treatments with your chiropractor.
Pain Relief
Sometimes, the goal has simply been achieved! When you have successfully treated your symptoms and increased improvement in function to the point where you’re no longer in need of treatment, it’s time to get back to life and enjoy a pain-free experience. Of course, you’ll be to keep an eye out for any signs of regression of pain creeping back in to make sure your issues don’t reoccur, but it’s okay to stop treatment when you’re feeling better.
Even without issues, you’re also welcome to chat with your family chiropractor about regular maintenance sessions to ensure the pain doesn’t return and your body keeps in proper alignment.
Chiropractic care is there to provide you and your family with a safe and effective treatment option for pain and injury recovery. With lower costs of care and the most holistic approach, many find chiropractic treatments to be the solution they’ve been searching for. Even with all its benefits, there are still certain times it’s best to stop your treatments and check with a doctor for the next steps in your health journey.
