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How Often Should You See A Chiropractor?
By Philip Vincent | October 18, 2009
Many people may consider chiropractic care, but may hesitate because they don’t know how often you should see a chiropractor. The answer to this is simple: it depends on your condition and what type of healing needs to be accomplished.
When you go to your first appointment, you should expect to be filling out paperwork, talking with the doctor about your problem, and giving your medical history. You may get an x-ray or make an appointment for an MRI. These pictures show the doctor what is truly going on with your skeleton. The doctor may also give you a physical examination and explore the area where you are having pain. He may have you do some range of motion tests as well. After your thorough examination, the doctor may or may not do any adjustments for you. He may decide to wait until he can see the results of your x-rays or MRI scans. You may also be given suggestions you can do at home before the next visit like applying ice packs or avoiding certain tasks.
At your next visit, the chiropractor will discuss your x-ray films with you and talk about a possible course of treatment. Some conditions only need a single visit to help you feel better. Others may require two or three visits per week for a several weeks. If your condition is serious, you may end up needing a longer course of treatment that will taper off in frequency as your condition improves. The doctor will then begin treatment with manual adjustments to lessen your pain and increase your movement abilities.
Chiropractic adjustments are done by applying a thrust to your spine using either the doctor’s hands or a small device. Most adjustments cause no pain or discomfort. The adjustments that are a little uncomfortable only last for a few seconds, and are usually the result of inflammed muscles, not the adjustment itself.
A good chiropractor will reassess your progress every few sessions. If you are showing good improvement, it is likely that you can reduce the frequency of your visits until you only go in as needed. Once you are feeling an improvement in your pain, you may do some sessions to correct the underlying problem. The adjustments at this point are trying to increase your mobility so you don’t need to worry about re-injuring yourself. If you do experience a flare up or recurrence of your problem, you’ll easily be able to increase your sessions briefly until you feel better again.
The next part of your treatment works on strengthening the soft tissue that surrounds the area that was affected by your injury or pain. By strengthening this tissue, you will have proper functioning of the muscles and joints of this area. Once the pain is gone or at least stabilized, you may get supportive care, or maintenance. This can be as frequent as once a week for serious issues to once every few months for minor issues. This helps the patient remain on a healthy course of action to prevent re-injury.
Since you may need more frequent visits at first, you’ll probably want to check with your insurance company. Most do cover chiropractic care to some degree. You can also ask the chiropractic office to find out if you have coverage on your policy as well. They are usually better suited to assess your benefits anyway.
Philip Vincent is a health educator. Need a Stratford CT Chiropractor? Consider a visit to this Stratford CT Chiropractor.
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