What to expect?

You and the practitioner need time to take a general medical and health history followed by a thorough orthopaedic, neurological and chiropractic assessment.

 

After that, your chiropractor will discuss in detail what the issues are and an appropriate course of treatment. If your problem is not something that Chiropractic can help with, then Alan will refer you back to your GP for further tests or scans.The course of treatment depends entirely on the patient. Typically there are three phases of care:The pain relief phase involves regular treatments over a short period of time that will start to address the problem and kick start the healing process.

 

It lasts until there are significant changes in your level of pain and the function of your spine.The rehabilitation phase requires less frequent appointments but allows the body to adjust and adapt to the changes being made. You, the patient will have to engage in a variety of life style changes, stretches and exercises to enable your body to manage the problems and allow your brain and body to let the changes being made establish themselves.

 

The Maintenance or Wellness phase is ongoing treatment and adjustments to the spine to enable you to manage, function and thrive rather than struggling with pain as and when it arises.

 

• The first appointment may take up to an hour, but rarely longer. It consists of your medical history which includes details of the complaint that you are presenting with. If you have a significant history, then bring along copies of any X-ray or MRI scan reports to generate as much information as is possible at that first session.

 

 

• Secondly, there is a comprehensive orthopaedic, neurological and chiropractic examination. The purpose of this, is to tie the information from your history to the results of the various tests. Be sure to come wearing loose fitting clothes so that you are unrestricted and can move freely.

 

 

• Lastly, before any treatment can start, your chiropractor will go over a report of findings. This is a summary of the findings of the assessment and comprises a detailed explanation of the problem, how the problem arose and the steps required to resolve those issues.

 

 

• Treatment may not start that day. We may need to wait on further tests or refer you back to your GP for further scans etc. Should you and the chiropractor decide to start straight away, then details of what the treatment involves will be set put by the practitioner.

 

 

• Whilst it is not the aim of treatment to make you uncomfortable, we endeavour to make sure that you are as comfortable as possible. If the techniques being used are provocative, then you will able to make an informed choice before hand as to how you would like treatment to proceed.

 

 

Chiropractic adjustments themselves are gentle impulses that are applied to areas of the body as well as individual joints. Quite often there is a distinct popping sound as the impulse is delivered, which in itself is not painful, but can take patients by surprise.