How Often Should You See A Chiropractor?

While many people may consider chiropractic care, they may hesitate because they don’t know how often you should be going to see a chiropractor. The answer to this is quite simple: it depends on your condition and what type of healing needs to be accomplished.

When you go to your first chiropractic visit, you should expect to fill out some paperwork, talk with the doctor about your problem, and then giving your medical history. You may get an x-ray if your condition warrants one. These pictures show the doctor what is truly going on with your spine. 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 a 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 some home suggestions you can do before the next visit like applying ice packs or avoiding certain movements or activities.

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.

Spinal adjustments are accomplished by applying pressure to various areas of your spine using either the doctor’s hands or small devices. Most adjustments cause no pain or discomfort. The adjustments that are a little uncomfortable only last for a few seconds, and are largely due to the sore muscles.

The chiropractor will reassess your progress every few treatments. If you are showing steady 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 spinal 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 stage of your treatment works on improving the strength of the soft tissue that surrounds the area that was affected by your pain or condition. By strengthening this tissue, you will have improved 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 this from happening again.

Since you may need frequent visits at the beginning of your care, be sure to check with your insurance company to see what might be covered. Many do cover chiropractic care, even if only a portion of what you need. You can also ask the chiropractic office to find out if you have coverage on your policy, as they do this type of thing daily.

Philip Vincent is a health care educator. Need a Chiropractor Thousand Oaks? Consider this Thousand Oaks Chiropractor.

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