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Adjustments and Techniques:
The most common treatment provided by a Chiropractor is spinal manipulative therapy, SMT, also known as an adjustment. It is a manual therapy where the Chiropractor mobilizes a fixated joint in order to restore proper motion which, under the Chiropractic paradigm, restores health and promotes healing.
An adjustment occurs when a medical practitioner, most often a Chiropractor, carefully takes a joint past the normal physiological range of movement without exceeding the anatomical boundary limit. Its defining factor is a dynamic thrust, a sudden yet gentle force that restores the joint’s range of motion and often is accompanied by an audible release.
The medicinal use of spinal manipulation can be traced back over 3000 years to ancient Chinese writings. Hippocrates, the "father of medicine" used manipulative techniques, as did the ancient Egyptians and many other cultures.
Many different Chiropractic techniques have been developed since its founding in the 1890s. Each specializes in certain locations in the spine or type of manipulative force used in providing an adjustment. A skilled Chiropractor will be knowledgeable in several of these techniques and able to recognize and apply the most appropriate technique based upon the needs of the patient.
Below is a list of treatment options we offer at our location:
- Diversified is the most common technique used by Chiropractors today. Diversified is considered the most generic chiropractic manipulative technique and is differentiated from other techniques in that its objective is to restore proper movement and alignment of spine and joint dysfunction. It is taught in most Colleges and is characterized by a high velocity low amplitude thrust, meaning a fast but gentle impulse targeted at a fixated spinal joint.
- Extremity adjusting is very similar to Diversified. It also involves high velocity low amplitude manipulations, but is directed at joints not located in the axial skeleton (skull or spinal column), but rather the appendicular skeleton (shoulders, hips, arms, legs, hands, and feet).
- Many Chiropractors use a spring loaded adjustive instrument to deliver their manipulations. This mechanical force manual assisted (MFMA) technique is regarded as a “softer” or less forceful manipulation. Activator Technique, is a copyrighted MFMA technique with its own specific diagnostic and treatment protocols.
- Cox Flexion/Distraction is a gentle, low-force procedure which utilizes specialized adjusting tables with movable parts. Treatment is performed on a special table that extends, and flexes or bends in the middle. Studies have shown this to increase the intervertrebral foramen, the gap between vertebrae where the nerve root exits after branching off the spinal cord, more than 20%. This provides relief by reducing pressure on the nerve root, allowing healing and proper function to return.
- Spinal decompression works by gently stretching the spine. That changes the force and position of the spine. This will take pressure off the spinal disks, which are gel-like cushions between the bones in your spine. Over time, negative pressure from this therapy may cause bulging or herniated disks to retract. That can take pressure off the nerves and other structures in your spine. This in turn, helps promote movement of water, oxygen, and nutrient-rich fluids into the disks so they can heal. The DRX9000, is a copyrighted and patented machine which operates under this premise, but treatment plans are significantly more expensive.
Both distraction and decompression are effective for reducing the effects of degenerative disc diseases and lumbar, cervical and thoracic disc herniations, and offer several benefits for people who do not want to undergo surgery to get rid of back pain.
- The Thompson Technique uses a “drop table” to provide adjustments. A gentle thrust is applied to a specific joint, which in turn, sets the drop piece into motion. The padded drop piece falls ¼ to ½ an inch, using gravity to aid the adjustment. This allows for less force to be used by the Chiropractor, providing a more gentle adjustment.
- Sacro-Occipital Technique (SOT) uses padded blocks which are placed under the patient’s pelvis. Block placement depends on how the pelvis is distorted, and the patient can be positioned either on their front or back. The patient lies on these blocks for a few minutes and as muscles relax, the pelvis assumes a more natural position. SOT practitioners believe that this has implications on the musculature of the entire spine, especially the neck.
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