Your Questions Answered

What is a Chiropractor?

A Chiropractor is a doctor that minimizes pain and maximizes function by the use of adjustments, exercise, and other methods. 

What does a chiropractor do?
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​Chiropractors use controlled forces called adjustments, when there are restrictions around joints that the body is unable to overcome itself.

Is a chiropractor a doctor?  
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​The initials D. C. after a chiropractor’s name mean “Doctor of Chiropractic”. Doctors of Chiropractic attend a minimum of 4 years of postgraduate education at an accredited Chiropractic College or University. Most pursue further education in sub specialties within the field. Chiropractors spend a minimum of one year working on patients in a clinic setting prior to graduation.

What are the benefits of chiropractic?
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The benefits of chiropractic include pain relief, tissue healing, and good function.  Function means the ability to do everyday and work (and “play”) activities through good range of motion, flexibility, stability, strength, and coordination.
Joints that have good function are not painful, perform better and are less likely to be injured or degenerate.
Chiropractic personalizes care to help create the potential for well being and improve quality of life, rather than just focusing on illness.

Are chiropractors safe?  
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Chiropractic care is so safe that their malpractice insurance is approximately 10-100 times less expensive than a medical doctor’s insurance.  The risk of injury is extremely low and the chance of benefit and improvement is extremely high.  Most people get significant improvement from seeing a chiropractor in very few visits if not the first day of treatment.
Chiropractic is one of the safest treatments currently available in healthcare and when there is a treatment where the potential for benefits far outweighs any risk, it deserves serious consideration.Whedon et al. (2014) based their study on 6,669,603 subjects after the unqualified subjects had been removed from the study and accounted for 24,068,808 office visits. They concluded,“No mechanism by which SM (spinal manipulation) induces injury into normal healthy tissues has been identified.(Whedon et al.,2014, p. 5)
Reference: Whedon, J. M., Mackenzie, T. A., Phillips, R. B., & Lurie, J. D. (2014). Risk of traumatic injury associated with chiropractic spinal manipulation in Medicare Part B beneficiaries aged 66- 69.Spine,[Epub ahead of print]1-33.