Stages of Care

The typical patient will encounter stages of care. The first stage focuses on symptomatic relief such as reduction of pain and other discomforts. The following stage addresses tissue healing and function normalization. The final stage consists of periodic spinal care to prevent the formation of new injuries, minimize future flare-ups of old injuries, and prevent degenerative spinal processes from occurring.

Relief Care

Relief care is the first stage of care for most patients. The primary goal during this initial stage is to provide the individual with symptomatic relief. Treatments focus on those techniques and therapies which effectively reduce pain and other discomforts. This will allow the majority of individuals to continue their activities of daily living. Therapies that may be used to reduce inflammation and muscle spasm during this stage are heat, muscle stimulation therapy and kinesiotaping.

Corrective Care

The second stage of care consists of correcting the problems which caused and contributed to the condition and healing and rehabilitating injured tissues. Unless these events take place, a favorable outcome is unlikely and future recurrences of the problem are likely. It is extremely important that the patient comply with and follow the instructions given by the doctor during this stage of care. Tissues and structures that are not fully healed and rehabilitated are prone to future problems. Keeping appointments, complying with home exercises and following all other recommendations will help insure this occurs. Patients should also be aware that once pain and discomfort have subsided, tissue healing and functional correction is many times still incomplete and will often require additional treatments.

Wellness Care

Once the spinal tissues are healed and spinal biomechanics have normalized the patient will be recommended to continue with periodic spinal checkups. For some this might mean 1-2 times per year, for others this may mean once per month or more. Chiropractic spinal checkups provide similar benefits to the spine that dental checkups provide to the teeth, namely catching minor problems and disturbances before they have the opportunity to cause pain, discomfort and irreversible tissue changes. Just like with cavities and heart attacks, irreversible tissue damage has generally occurred before the symptoms of spinal pain and discomfort become apparent.