What should I expect during my chiropractic evaluation?

One of the most common questions we have from a new patient, particularly one that has never been to a chiropractor’s office is ‘what is going to happen?’ I get it, visiting any doctor can be a little stressful for most people. And I’ll be the first to admit that there are some scary stories out there regarding my profession. I decided to do my part in putting your mind at ease and give a rundown of what you can expect when you visit our office.

After all the paperwork is completed, you’ll sit down with either Dr. Tiffany or me and have a very thorough discussion about your whole health, both past and present. This conversation is very important, because it allows us gain insight on your lifestyle and your mindset, which we feel are of the utmost importance to your care. Following this conversation, we will focus on the primary reason you decided to schedule with us – these are the “what, when and how” questions. These questions will help us gain an insight of your current condition and will help us perform a more specific and effective evaluation. The evaluation we perform will help us determine possible causes of your symptoms and help us rule out potential ‘red flags’ that would require referral for further evaluation.

Following the interview and evaluation, we will discuss our thoughts on a possible diagnosis or diagnoses that will best help us understand your condition. It’s our job then to ensure you fully understand possible outcomes as it relates to your diagnosis and how we plan to help you reach your health goals. At this time, you will be given the opportunity to decide whether you want to start care with us. For an overview of the services we provide, head to our services page here!

‘What will you do?’

If you decide to start care with us, we will begin developing a plan that we feel will best suit your needs. We like to breakdown your care plan into 3 phases.

Phase 1: The Relief Phase

• During the relief phase, our goal is to reduce the intensity of your symptoms. For the most part, most people that visit a chiropractor’s office is due to some sort of pain. Whether it be from an old football injury, or your just hurt your neck headbanging to some Metallica, or you tweaked your hamstring at Average Joe’s MMA during training!
• During this phase we will employ therapies that have been shown to aid in symptoms reduction such as electric muscle stimulation, heat or ice, myofascial therapy, and of course adjustments.

Phase 2: Corrective Phase

• After your symptoms have been reduced to an acceptable level, we will transition to the corrective phase. For me, this is the most important phase of your care. Your adjustments and passive therapies (e-stim, myofascial therapy, heat/ice) will become less frequent, instead we will incorporate more active care therapies to encourage your confidence with self-management.
• Strengthening and stabilizing is the name of the game here! We will do our best to recommend “easy to perform” therapeutic and corrective exercises that will help you manage your condition now and in the future!

Phase 3: Supportive Phase

• Once we’ve reached this point in your care, we are preparing you for release from care. Your symptoms have been reduced, if not eliminated. You are confident in your ability to perform all the self-care strategies, both passive and active.
• Once we’ve met your goals with care, we will set you free! HOWEVER, we do encourage periodic check-ins so we can ensure your spine receives the care it needs!

‘Will it hurt?’

Well…maybe, but that is not our intent. Both Dr. Tiffany and I have a variety of adjusting techniques and manual therapies we can adapt to everyone that walks into our office. However, some people do experience some adverse effects from treatment, but largely these are short term. Some of these side effects include but not limited to increased soreness, headache, and less commonly sprain/strain injuries. It is our goal to help you, not enforce our techniques and philosophies on you. We will have a detailed discussion about the services we offer and what we feel is best for you.

I hope I was able to answer some common questions and concerns about Chiropractic care. If you ever have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out! Ready to book a consultation? Click here!

Dr. Jerome Longoria DC, CSCS.