How to get the most out of your chiropractic care
One of the concerns many people have regarding chiropractic treatment is the fear that once you go, you have to go forever. Then, on the other hand, many satisfied patients who have been helped with chiropractic want to maintain their progress and keep going.
When discussing maintenance treatments, chiropractors are not alone. Dentists don’t expect to see you once and then never again. Your child’s orthodontists highly recommend retainers for several years after using braces. Does your medical doctor tell you to stop taking your high blood pressure medication once your blood pressure returns to normal? What about your owner’s manual for your car? Doesn’t it have a maintenance schedule?
Chiropractors often discuss the need for maintenance care that follows your course of acute care. Patients and the medical profession often ask why or if there is a need for continued care. Medical research shows the benefit and need for chiropractic maintenance.
A study was published in January of 2011 in Spine Journal, concluding that “SMT (spinal manipulative therapy) is effective for the treatment of chronic nonspecific LBP. To obtain long-term benefit, this study suggests maintenance spinal manipulations after the initial intensive manipulative therapy.”
In April of 2011, the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine published a study that provides even more validation of chiropractic maintenance care following a low-back injury. The study followed 894 injured workers for a period of one year. During that year, three different types of therapy were available to the workers: chiropractic, medical treatments and physical therapy, along with receiving no therapy. Every time the worker experienced a repeated episode it was recorded during the following year. The study showed that chiropractic maintenance care had the lowest incidence of repeat injury among the workers.
Patients often say, “I’m feeling great. Why do I need to come back?” I try to explain that their spines didn’t get this way over the weekend. It takes years of wear and tear for your spine to come to this condition. I explain to them that their spine looks like a train wreck. If someone has a lot of degeneration in the spine and they haven’t made the best health choices, and they have a demanding or physical lifestyle, then maintenance treatment is often needed to maintain the corrections that have been made. In other words, it depends on the patient and their needs and their current condition.
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Dr. Wayne M. Fichter Jr. is a chiropractor at Natural Spine Solutions. The business is located at 3913 Schreiber Way in Coeur d’Alene, 208-966-4425.