Frequently Asked Questions


Q: What is chiropractic?

A: Chiropractic is the science, art & philosophy of locating & correcting vertebral subluxations through gentle, specific chiropractic adjustments thus restoring your own inborn ability to be healthy. When under the proper control of your nervous system, all the cells, tissues, and organs of your body are designed to function at optimum potential.

Q: What is a subluxation?

A: A misalignment of one or more of your spinal bones (vertebrae), which causes interference to your nervous system. If your nervous system is interfered with, your bodys natural ability to heal itself & function at its optimum potential becomes impaired. A subluxation is a perfect example of how structure affects function.

Q: What is an adjustment?

A: A gentle, specific ?thrust? delivered by hand or instrument. The purpose of the adjustment is to correct your spinal subluxation(s) thus removing the nerve interference in your body.

Q: Does it hurt to get adjusted?

A: For most patients, chiropractic adjustments are painless. Some patients who are new to chiropractic adjustments may involuntarily stiffen or resist the adjustment and feel a small amount of discomfort until they are able to relax during treatment. In addition, mild discomfort may be felt if the patient has had a recent trauma, such as whiplash, due to inflammation. However, many patients report a feeling of relief, calmness, and a sense of well being after the adjustment; others feel improved mobility. When you allow the vertebrae in your spine to return to their proper position, you will notice much less stress and tension.

Q: Is chiropractic care safe?

A: Yes. Statistics prove that chiropractic care is one of the safest types of healthcare in the world. You only need to compare the malpractice premiums paid by chiropractors to those paid by medical doctors. Doctors of Chiropractic pay only a small fraction (approx. 1/20) of the price medical doctors pay in malpractice premiums. 250,000 people will die this year as a result of bad medicine, making this the third leading cause of death in the United States of America (The Journal of The American Medical Association, JAMA; Vol.284, July 26, 2000). Of the millions of people receiving chiropractic adjustments, each year, only a handful will even make a complaint.

Q: Can I receive chiropractic care after back or neck surgery?

A: Rest assured that your chiropractic doctor will avoid the surgically modified areas of your spine. Surgery often causes instability above or below the involved level. These areas will be the focus of your chiropractic care. It?s an unfortunate fact that up to half of those who had spinal surgery discover a return of their original symptoms months or years later. They then face the prospect of additional surgery. This too common occurrence is known as ?Failed Back Surgery Syndrome.? Chiropractic may help prevent repeated operations.

Q: How many adjustments will I need?

A: This question is ambiguous. The number of adjustments varies with each patient and their individual case. Long standing subluxations can take months or even years to completely correct. And unfortunately, most people don?t come to the chiropractor until they feel pain, which means their subluxation could have existed many years before the pain arrived.

Q: Why do my children need chiropractic care?

A: The birth process is often the cause of your child?s first subluxation. A very soft and undeveloped spine of an infant can suffer trauma during delivery. It is estimated that as much as 8Olbs of pulling pressure can be exerted to remove a baby from the birth canal. Then, as children grow up and become more adventurous, the number of injuries to their spines become countless. The repeated falls as children learn to walk, the running, jumping, twisting, bumping and falling all over the place while playing in the yard or on an athletic field will often cause your child to become subluxated. However, often children do not show any signs or symptoms of being subluxated until later on in life. Chiropractic care offers your child a more responsive body, a more balanced flow of energy and overall increased performance as she/he passes through their windows of development. A subluxation free child also minimizes the risk of future health challenges.

Q: Am I Too Old For Chiropractic Care?

A: More and more people are consulting chiropractic doctors, especially in their later years. With growing concerns about over-medication and the side effects of combining various prescription drugs, safe, natural chiropractic care is growing in popularity. Restoring better spinal function can help improve mobility, vitality, endurance, and appetite. Many patients report improvement with arthritic symptoms and other chronic ailments often associated with the aging process. Chiropractors modify their adjusting techniques to provide maximum comfort and results. As we get older and wiser, the simplicity and effectiveness of chiropractic care becomes more and more obvious.

Q: Can I be adjusted if I am pregnant?

A: Of course! Techniques are modified to accommodate pregnant women, and chiropractors are trained to insure you the safest and best possible care throughout your pregnancy. Consider the following aspects of pregnancy that lead to subluxation: ? Rapid increase/decrease in weight - Postural changes - Changes in sleep patterns & positions - Altered appetite and eating habits - Loosening of body ligaments to allow for growth/labor - Flat feet/pronation due to weight gain/loose ligaments - Emotional changes (hormonal shifts/new family stress) ? The subluxations you have during pregnancy don?t just affect you, they affect your unborn baby too!! Your baby needs your nerve system to be fully functioning in order to develop correctly. Studies have shown that women who have consistent chiropractic care throughout their pregnancies have shorter and less painful labors with fewer complications and fewer interventions.

Q: What causes the sound made during a chiropractic adjustment?

A: That sound is not your spine ?cracking? or ?popping? like most people think. That sound is created by gas (in this case, nitrogen) rushing in to fill the partial vacuum created when the joints are slightly separated. Another example of this phenomenon would be the ?pop? sound you hear when the cork is taken out of a champagne bottle. Not all chiropractic adjusting techniques produce this

Q: Is it bad to ?crack your back or neck a lot?

A: This question is frequently asked because people associate the ?cracking? or ?popping? of ones back or neck with a chiropractic adjustment. The two are not the same thing. If a person has a desire to ?crack his/her neck or back it is often because one area of their spine is fixated or jammed causing another area to move too much and ?pop?, sometimes by itself. It?s the fixated or jammed area that needs to be properly adjusted by a chiropractor so that the other parts of the spine will not be hypermobile and noisy. When you ?crack? your back you may be relieving the tension for a little while. Do you notice how it keeps coming back? That is because you are not giving yourself a specific chiropractic adjustment. The cause of the spinal tension, the fixated or jammed (subluxated) vertebrae, has not been corrected. Any person who makes a habit out of ?cracking? or ?popping? their back or neck needs to go to a Doctor of Chiropractic to have their spine checked. Even a chiropractor cannot adjust him/herself

Q: Once you see a chiropractor, do you have to go the rest of your life?

A: No. The extent to which you choose to benefit from your chiropractic care is ultimately up to you. Each arid every one of us is solely responsible for the quality of our health & well-being. However, we do strongly urge all practice members to consider lifetime, wellness chiropractic care. This is where the long-term, lasting benefits of care are enjoyed. Regular exercise & healthy eating habits are a lifestyle decision and so is lifetime, wellness chiropractic care. You need to remain subluxation free for life.

Q: How long until I feel better?

A: Some patients experience almost instant relief of their symptoms. Others discover it can take many weeks, months or years. But remember, feeling good does not necessarily mean that you?re healthy. Yes, your chiropractor wants you to ?feel good?, however, the mere absence of symptoms is just that, an absence of symptoms.

Q: Should I continue chiropractic care if I dont have any symptoms and feel better?

A: Yes. Just because symptoms disappear, does not mean your subluxations are corrected. Most of the practice members seen in our office have spinal degeneration (decay) which has taken years to develop. The trauma of the birth process, slips, falls, accidents and countless other stresses over the course of your lifetime adversely affect the health of your spine. The longer you wait to have your spine checked by a chiropractor, the longer it will take to correct your subluxations. However, how you choose to use chiropractic care is ultimately up to you. It has been our experience that those who stop care when they are ?feeling fine? return with the same health challenge(s) which brought them to our office in the first place...only its usually gotten worse. On the other hand, those practice members who commit to long-term, wellness chiropractic care, find their health challenge(s) rarely return and they enjoy a higher quality of life & health.