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First Chiropractic provides chiropractic re-evaluations for your condition. Your doctor of chiropractic will make specific recommendations as to your future care. Such recommendations will be based upon the objective physical findings noted in the re-evaluation, as well as your doctor’s past experience with similar cases. Oftentimes – but not necessarily – your doctor may elect to change or alter your treatment program to fit the progress that you are making. Your doctor may decide to change the interval or frequency of your office visits according to your progress. Or, your doctor may decide to start using a different technique that is more suitable for your changing condition. Also, your doctor may counsel you on other treatment procedures, such as good dietary habits, exercises or spinal rehabilitation.

Regularly scheduled re-evaluations help your doctor to keep up-to-date on your condition and increase the effectiveness of your treatment program. Your part in the re-evaluation process is to notify the doctor of any and all changes that you may be experiencing throughout your treatment program. This information is helpful, with the results of the re-evaluations, in formulating your doctor’s decision on your future care.

Understanding your health problem is crucial to the overall success of your treatment program. Ask questions as often as you would until you feel confident about your treatment program and the progress you are making. Following your doctor’s recommendations is certainly vital to your overall success.

Only through these re-evaluation procedures, and keeping the lines of communication open with your doctor, will your current state of health be known.

our original treatment program was based upon the diagnostic findings and case history that were presented on your first visit. According to those findings, your doctor of chiropractic set up a treatment program tailored to your needs. During the course of your treatment program you will most likely be scheduled for a reevaluation. At that time, your doctor of chiropractic will evaluate the progress that is being made and either continue, intensify or reduce your present health care program, or possibly make special specific recommendations on your future care.

Since patients tend to concern themselves only with the symptoms of their disease, they might believe that if they are feeling better, the problem must be gone. That’s usually not true. The same diagnostic procedures that were performed initially will most likely need to be repeated to determine what type of real (objective) changes are taking place. Pain is not the best indicator of the progress you are making, since the nature of pain is such that it comes and goes. Pain is also usually the last thing to appear in a poor health condition and generally the first thing to disappear as health care begins.

If you are presently pain-free, or experiencing relief, it does not mean the problem has been corrected. Only through objective physical findings, like those evidenced by your re-evaluation results, can your progress be accurately gauged. This is why reevaluations are such an important part of your health care program. Your treatment program was designed to do more than simply get you out of pain. It was designed to strengthen, stabilize, and possibly even correct the underlying problem.

WHAT IS CHIROPRACTIC?

WILL I HAVE TO KEEP GOING TO MY CHIROPRACTOR FOREVER?

Most cases seen by a doctor of chiropractic will respond in a relatively short period of time. However, in certain instances, a long-term treatment program will be prescribed.

After patients get the relief they want, many choose to continue with some type of periodic care. These chiropractic “checkups” can help support the final stages of healing and help detect and resolve new problems before they become serious. How Long you want to receive chiropractic care is up to you.

Patient results vary depending upon many factors.
•How long have you had your problem?
•Do you keep your appointments?
•Are you getting the proper rest, exercise and nutrition?
•Are you in otherwise good health?

Within a short period of time most patients sense enough progress to justify completing our recommendations.

The process may be a lengthy one in these cases because a chiropractic adjustment works by moving the vertebrae only a small distance back toward their normal position. Almost immediately after treatment the muscles and ligaments will begin to pull the vertebrae back to their old, misaligned position. Each time the vertebrae are adjusted, they move a little closer to normal until the muscles have been retrained to hold the correct position. This process only works with repetition over time; and the greater the misalignment, the longer resolution will take.

Once the original condition that caused the pain and discomfort has been resolved, it may still be necessary for you to return from time to time to your doctor of chiropractic for follow-up treatments as the spine reverts to its old, misaligned position.

IS A CHIROPRACTOR A DOCTOR?

A doctor of chiropractic is not a medical doctor (M.D.) but rather a doctor of chiropractic (D.C.). A student of chiropractic is required to have at least two years of college undergraduate work with credits in biology, chemistry and other basic sciences before entering a chiropractic college. Before graduating from chiropractic college and earning the doctor of chiropractic degree (D.C.), the student will have completed more than 4,500 hours of classroom study. Also, during the course of a student’s chiropractic studies, the student must take and pass a three-part national board examination, which is required in order to practice in virtually every state. After graduation, the new doctor of chiropractic must then pass a state board examination in whatever state he or she wishes to practice.

CAN A DOCTOR OF CHIROPRACTIC PRESCRIBE MEDICATION?

The doctor of chiropractic is trained in treating human illnesses without drugs or surgery. While a medical doctor studies pharmacology and immunology, a doctor of chiropractic will have studied manipulation, body mechanics and nutrition. Although drugs are valuable in treating contagious or infectious diseases, drugs for the most part can disguise or cover up pain and discomfort. When the symptoms of a condition are covered up, they can give a misleading signal to the patient that the problem is gone or corrected. This is like disconnecting the oil pressure warning light in your car when it comes on, instead of checking the oil. The doctor of chiropractic believes in searching for and resolving the underlying problem, which can often be accomplished using his specialty – the spinal adjustment.

CAN YOU ADJUST YOURSELF?

There are some people who can move their own joints until they hear a popping noise, as during an adjustment. This is usually because these people have joints that are highly movable (hypermobile). But many times this hypermobility is due to the fact that there are other joints in their spine that are fixated (hypomobile). When certain joints don’t move properly, the body can compensate by allowing other joints to move too much. The sound you hear when you adjust yourself is usually the HYPER-mobile joints which do not need adjusting. It is the HYPO-mobile joints that need adjusting, and this usually cannot be done by one’s self.

WHAT IF MY INSURANCE WON’T PAY FOR CHIROPRACTIC CARE?

Insurance companies make two mistakes by Limiting or denying coverage. First, they ignore current research showing the superiority of chiropractic care in these types of cases. Plus, they overlook the lower cost and higher patient satisfaction enjoyed with chiropractic care. First Chiropractic offers ways to make chiropractic care affordable for just about anyone.