Chiropractic care breaks down into three phases:
- Pain relief
- Spinal correction
- Wellness
Each phase has an obvious purpose and a logical protocol.
Most patients make an appointment to see a chiropractor because they want to eliminate a symptom-- usually pain. I feel it is the doctor's responsibility to respect this desire of a patient to attain pain relief. I believe that a chiropractor who does not address the pain problem in the initial assessment and care plan is doing their patients a diservice.
This may seem obvious and logical, but I often hear of certain chiropractors who pride themselves on their extreme subluxation correction approach. Chiropractors who would rather talk about restoring alignment to a new patient before talking about controlling pain. These doctors often times skip over the pain relief phase altogether and jump immediately into spinal correction. These chiropractors view symptoms as mere subluxation signals. Eliminate the spinal subluxation and the pain will automatically stop, they declare. So just focus on the subluxation, the rest will take care of itself.
This is not always the case, however.
I believe my first responsibility is to stop suffering. And some might think this is blasphemous, but I also uphold that the chiropractic adjustment may not always be the most effective way to end the suffering. Sometimes ice or heat, or stretching or traction, or kinesiotaping, massage, trigger point therapy or even electric stimulation (or a combination of two or more of these) may work better for the patient in providing relief. Sometimes even, the exacerbating factor of the pain is not physiological, but something that must be identified on an emotional, psychological or maybe even spiritual level.
Then only after the pain is controlled, we, doctor and patient TOGETHER, can move to the next phase of care, that of spinal correction. In this phase of care, the purpose is to stabilize the spine and allow the vertebral subluxation complex to heal. With the vertebrae in better alignment with better movement and functioning capacity, the patient moves beyond pain relief into the realms of wellness.
Of course, in this spinal correction phase, the chiropractic adjustment stands alone as the most important component of the process. All those therapies that helped reduce pain, now take a back seat to the power of the adjustment at this point.
The benefits attained from spinal correction totally outweigh any benefits attained from mere pain relief treatments.
This is why I understand why many chiropractors gloss over pain relief, maybe even ignore this aspect of pain relief care from their practice. But it can get too extreme.
We, as chiropractors, must give our patients not just what they need, but what they want.
Because this is what's right.
And by the way, the opposite viewpoint is also detremental to a patient's welfare: that is of those doctors who focus ONLY on pain relief-- the idea of helping patients get out of pain and then dismiss them without detemining the need for spinal correction.
The "okay-come-back-and-see-me-if-it-starts-to-hurt-again" practice style.
For we, as chiropractors, must give our patients not just what they want, but what they need.
Because this is what's right.