Adjusting Techniques

The First Chiropractic Visit: What to Expect

Your first visit to the chiropractor can include some element of uncertainty. If you are thinking of visiting a chiropractor, it’s probably because you think you need to be adjusted. It should come as no surprise that the adjustment experience differs remarkably from office to office. Among the reasons for this is that there are very many different adjusting techniques. Chiropractic techniques can be very different from one another and if you’re thinking of visiting a chiropractor, it’s probably worth your time to take a deeper dive into what a chiropractic technique is.

What Is a Chiropractic Technique?

A chiropractic technique is a treatment protocol consisting of some form of assessment which identifies a disorder and then defines a treatment or intervention for that disorder.

That isn’t a very exciting statement, but it is very important. The extent to which you can be assessed for clues to underlying disturbances bears directly on the preciseness with which care can be effective for you. At the center of any Chiropractic adjustment is some application of motion. Motion is very central to life. There are many body types, tolerances to forthrightness of technique as well as disorders that need adjusting. Accordingly, there are many ways to arrive at the motion that the chiropractor calls an adjustment. Most chiropractors employ either manual techniques or instrument assisted techniques or some combination of the two. In arriving at the Chiropractic assessment component of a technique, we find that most considerations of assessment are either Top-Down or Bottom-Up.

Top-Down Chiropractic Assessment

Top-Down Chiropractic assessment involves the reality that your brain controls your body and that a more robust, complete, or uninhibited control process is arrived at by eliminating obstructions or entrapments. The Chiropractic adjustment is then intended to rectify those disorders.

Bottom-Up Chiropractic Assessment

Bottom-Up thinking in Chiropractic looks at the body as the mechanical assembly or biomechanical chain that it is (a little bit like the suspension of an automobile). In identifying mechanical distortions and making corrections to those distortions, functional problems can be resolved. Central to the idea of Chiropractic care is that the Chiropractic process treats fundamental disorders as opposed to being treatment of symptoms only. It has become my observation that the benefits of Top-Down interventions are made more lasting with the stability afforded by Bottom-Up mechanics. Care at our clinic is an amalgam of the two. We are all about Staying Adjusted.

Popular Manual Adjustment Techniques

Popular manual (done by hand, “osseous”) adjustment techniques include Diversified and Gonstead, and certain aspects of the treatment of tissues is often performed manually as well. These are techniques of adjustment that can result in audible releases that often get described as “being cracked.” It is worth noting that the chiropractor doesn’t crack anyone’s bones; the adjustment process happens at the joints. The restoration of normalcy of joint motion is one of the huge and often overlooked benefits of the Chiropractic process.

Instrument-Assisted Adjusting Techniques

Instrument assisted adjusting techniques can include handheld adjustment devices such as an Activator adjusting instrument or a mechanized table such as a drop table but is not limited to these things. Instrument assisted adjusting can include manual adjusting components.

Our Approach at Grovetown Chiropractic

Treatment here at Grovetown Chiropractic includes, from the very first day, the objective of seeing that you get adjusted and stay adjusted. Embracing such a lofty goal can be complicated and we have spent many years finding a way to deconstruct this process into its elements such that we are able to guide people to health, strength and wellness goals that many considered beyond their reach. It’s very common for people to come to us for care with bleak pictures of their own state, expecting to embark on a long and difficult care process only to discover that success was well within their grasp with the right guidance of vision and process.

Dr. Seals’ Preferred Adjusting Techniques

Dr Seals prefers manual adjusting techniques, which can yield the most immediate and lasting results, but also employs low force and instrument assisted measures such that we arrive at the best combination of patient experience and optimized outcomes.

Organization, C. R. (n.d.). Chiropractic Techniques. Chiropractic techniques. https://chiro.org/LINKS/ABSTRACTS/Chiropractic_Techniques.shtml