Upper Cervical Chiropractic Care

The first step in determining a solution with any new patient is to sit down and perform a thorough health history.  This tool is designed to gather any and all health information that provides the keys to understanding the true nature of the issues while gaining perspective as to the likelihood of success of the Upper Cervical approach.  Sometimes by the end of this step, a determination is made that the patient may not need this approach but would be better benefited from a referral to another healthcare provider.  If so, with a vast network of trusted medical professionals a referral can be made and coordination can take place to ensure the best possible outcomes.  If it is determined however that a person is a good candidate for care the next step in the process is a physical examination that provides evidence to which issues are primary vs those that are compensations.  Patients will often relate that this part of the process has been rushed through with other practitioners and if so many clinical pearls have potentially been overlooked.  

The examination process focuses on testing.  After orthopedic and neurologic examination, range of motion, posture assessment and thermography all provide the critical clinical clues necessary to determine a baseline to work from.  When these results are compiled with the details gleaned from the consultations areas of key concern can be identified and if necessary evaluated through radiographic examination.

The key to a good radiographic evaluation begins with knowledge of which x-rays are warranted. A good clinician doesn’t take an X-ray to “see what’s going on”  but rather to evaluate the severity of what the test suggests are key issues.  With years of specialized training specifically in the areas of x-ray technique and advanced evaluation methods, critical assessment knowledge multiplies increasing the likelihood of a timely expectation of improvements in clinical outcomes.

With so much time and effort applied to determine if the patient is 1.   In the right clinic for their issues, 2.  What key physical findings support this fact, and 3. What is the severity of the structural issues causing the symptomatology? A report of findings can now be performed.  This step helps the patient to gain a complete understanding of the nature of what root causes have been discovered and how they relate to their health concerns.  Finally, with all this data in hand, we can design and apply a test adjustment.  After performing this adjustment we can test against our physical findings and determine was the adjustment successful according to our post-adjustment results.  At this moment we can begin to change our focus from we think we can help to we know we can.  After adjustment, at-home care instructions and now be given and a follow-up assent can be scheduled typically 48-72 hours later.

The follow-up visit is designed to find out to what degree the physical symptoms responded to the test adjustment.  Knowing this information allows us to reduce the individual’s likely speed of recovery allowing a plan of care to be determined.  When designing this plan we will assess whether or not the patient was able to hold the adjustment, the speed of recovery, and how this information relates to clinical knowledge of other individuals who have been in a similar age or degenerative categories.  Since the determination has been made there is a high likelihood to help this patient a clinical strategy can be presented and the real process of recovery can begin.

At this point, we can present a full plan for treatment with scheduled reevaluations to assess the effectiveness of treatment to assure that the patient’s goals are realistic and that the clinical benchmarks are being achieved.  Since we can easily predict the needed frequency of care we can also provide a full financial report with any insurance details and if an individual does not have insurance we can look at easy financing options to fit a variety of budgets.  After witnessing the level of work that goes into the assessment most people are generally concerned about cost but with a focus on never over recommending care and facilitating actual tissue healing and strengthening the majority of patients are pleasantly surprised at the affordable nature of these comprehensive strategies.