Back pain is the main complaint bringing patients in to see a chiropractor. The type of chiropractic treatment, and its frequency, will depend on the issue and goal of care. For general back pain, general chiropractic care may help, but for spinal conditions like scoliosis, a scoliosis-specific chiropractor is necessary.
Chiropractors are healthcare professionals who focus on diagnosing and treating conditions that affect the spine, joints, and the musculoskeletal system through pain and mobility issues. The frequency of chiropractor visits will depend on the cause of the back pain and/or if it's an ongoing condition.
Before answering how often a person should see a chiropractor, let's first address the different reasons for seeking out chiropractic care.
A chiropractor focuses on assessing and diagnosing the cause of back and joint pain, along with nerve and mobility issues.
A chiropractor can assess a patient's strength, flexibility, posture, movement patterns, spinal and musculoskeletal health, and customize treatment plans accordingly.
Spinal manipulation through a number of adjustments is a primary chiropractic technique involving hands-on adjustments of the joints to improve function, pain, and mobility.
Postural and lifestyle guidance, physical therapy and soft-tissue therapy can also be part of a chiropractic treatment plan.
When it comes to ongoing spinal conditions like scoliosis, however, the distinction between general chiropractic care and condition-specific chiropractic is important.
For chronic pain and/or spinal conditions, regular maintenance adjustments may be frequent and ongoing.
Some people who have experienced a lot of back pain throughout their lives go to a chiropractor regularly in a proactive effort to maintain spinal flexibility; a main cause of back pain is spinal rigidity that can occur for different reasons, and preventative care can involve regular maintenance adjustments.
For people suffering from migraines, chiropractic care can help by taking pressure off spinal nerves by improving spinal alignment.
When it comes to finding the right chiropractor, this means a chiropractor who specializes in your complaint, whether it be general or related to a specific spinal condition.
So let's talk about how chiropractic can help treat scoliosis: a highly-prevalent and progressive spinal condition.
There are a number of spinal conditions/issues that necessitate chiropractic care.
Scoliosis is a highly-prevalent spinal condition that causes the spine to bend unnaturally to the side and rotate, and as a progressive condition, the nature of scoliosis is to become more severe over time.
There are two treatment responses for scoliosis: surgical and nonsurgical.
A chiropractic-centered approach is nonsurgical and works towards preserving as much of the spine's natural function, strength, and flexibility as possible, whereas scoliosis surgery doesn't reflect the spine's movement-based design and can disrupt its natural strength and flexibility.
The more severe scoliosis is at the time of treatment onset, the more frequent adjustments will be needed, and a patient's level of spinal flexibility is also important.
Spinal flexibility, along with a number of other factors, determines how responsive the spine is to treatment, and in some cases of adult scoliosis where significant progression has occurred prior to the onset of treatment, preparatory work has to be done to restore a baseline level of spinal flexibility.
Progression means scoliosis is increasing in size and rotation, making it more complex to treat and increasing spinal rigidity.
The goal of chiropractic-centered scoliosis treatment is to restore balance and stability to the spine by improving its position and alignment, and this also improves body posture and brain-body communication; the spine and brain from the central nervous system.
Chiropractic adjustments may be frequent as nonsurgical treatment is proactive and is started immediately following a diagnosis, when curves are going to be smaller and more responsive.
As progression occurs, the spine becomes increasingly rigid, making it less responsive to chiropractic adjustments and techniques.
There are never treatment guarantees, but with progressive conditions like scoliosis, the sooner treatment is started, the better.
Here at the CLEAR Scoliosis Institute, when it comes to chiropractic adjustments and techniques applied to reposition the curve's most-tilted vertebrae back into alignment with the rest of the spine, the frequency of visits can vary.
As CLEAR treatment plans are integrative, patients of the Institute have access to multiple different types of treatment under one roof, which is why some patients travel from afar.
For local patients, standard care plans involve frequent chiropractic care: an estimated 3 visits a week for 4 weeks, and then frequency often decreases to twice a week for 6 weeks.
For patients who have to travel and don't have that level of accessibility, an intensive plan can recommend visiting twice a day for 1 to 2 weeks.
Regardless of the amount of chiropractic adjustments, treatment plans always end with an established home-rehabilitation program so patients can continue healing the spine from home; this is key to the sustainability of long-term treatment results.
The benefits of chiropractic adjustments include increasing spinal flexibility, ensuring the spine's proper alignment, and pain relief.
A stiff spine can be painful, and regular chiropractic adjustments delivered by a scoliosis-specific chiropractor can help with pain, the spine's structural alignment, and improve postural issues.
It's important for patients to understand that there is more than one way to treat scoliosis, and while traditional scoliosis treatment may funnel patients towards spinal fusion surgery, many patients will respond well to a less-invasive nonsurgical response.
Nonsurgical treatment plans are integrative; they combine the potential of multiple types of treatment so scoliosis can be impacted on multiple levels.
While scoliosis-specific chiropractic care can impact the spine's position and the condition's structural nature, the spine also needs support from its surrounding muscles.
Scoliosis-specific physical therapy can work towards improving a patient's posture through restoring the spine's surrounding muscle strength and balance, and this provides the spine with the support and stability it needs.
A common symptom of scoliosis is a muscular imbalance as the spine's unnatural bend and twist pulls its surrounding muscles in different directions.
If muscles on one side of the spine become stretched and sore from overuse while muscles on the opposite side become weak from lack of use, this can further exacerbate the condition's uneven forces and effects.
Corrective bracing is an additional nonsurgical treatment discipline that works with chiropractic care and physical therapy.
Corrective bracing like the ScoliBrace® is known to be particularly effective on growing spines because they are more malleable, so is a regular facet of childhood scoliosis treatment.
A corrective brace can help by pushing the spine into a straighter alignment and as the modern ScoliBrace® is designed to work with movement, it complements chiropractic adjustments and physical therapy.
How often you should receive routine chiropractic adjustments and care will depend on the goal.
With preventative care, visits are less frequent because they are working towards maintaining a baseline level of spinal flexibility and health, rather than addressing a current complaint or treating a progressive spinal condition like scoliosis.
General chiropractic care with regular chiropractic visits can offer general benefits, but for a specific condition like scoliosis, a chiropractor needs to be scoliosis-specific, just as physical therapy has to be designed and delivered by a scoliosis-specific physical therapist.
Chiropractic visits for scoliosis treatment can range from twice daily for a week or two, to 3 weekly visits lasting 4 weeks, but as a focus of nonsurgical scoliosis treatment is customization, every treatment plan is unique and shaped by a number of variables.
Here at the CLEAR Scoliosis Institute, treatment plans are proactive, integrative, and chiropractic-centered, and if you, or a loved one, is showing indicators of scoliosis, a comprehensive assessment can lead to early detection and intervention.
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