Chiropractic Care
Chiropractic is one of the largest primary-contact health care professions in Ontario and is a non-invasive, hands-on health care discipline. As primary care practitioners, chiropractors can develop and carry out a comprehensive treatment / management plan, recommend therapeutic exercise and other non-invasive therapies, and provide nutritional, dietary and lifestyle counselling.
Chiropractors are one of only five classes of health care professionals in Ontario that are able to use the title Doctor, with its accompanying rights and obligations. A Doctor of Chiropractic has completed at least three years of university followed by four years at an accredited chiropractic institution, receiving more than 4,200 hours of specialized clinical training in anatomy, pathology, biomechanics, chiropractic principles, diagnosis and adjustment techniques.
3 Phases of Chiropractic Care:
1. Initial Intensive Care:
Our initial goal of care is to begin to stabilize the spine and get the problem under control. This is where the correction of the subluxation begins. In this first stage of care, visits will be frequent and tightly scheduled to obtain control of the problem. Incidentally, this is where patients start to feel better. After the problem is under control, healing can begin to take place.
2. Corrective Care (Rehabilitation):
Our main goal in corrective care is for more complete correction and optimal healing to occur. The underlying muscle and ligament damage will begin to resolve as subluxations are brought closer to maximum correction and stabilization. This leads us into the most rewarding WELLNESS phase of care.
3. Wellness Care (Maintenance):
Wellness care consists of the check-ups, timed specifically for you, to help maintain the corrections already made to your spine and nervous system. Also important in wellness care is adjusting any new subluxations that occur as quickly as possible thereby minimizing their negative and devastating effects on your health. By maintaining optimum nervous system function, your body will function at peak efficiency allowing you to enjoy optimal health. This is the most exciting and rewarding phase of care. This is our ultimate goal for all people of our community.
What to Expect On Your First Visit:
As a patient you will also be asked about your health history (e.g. falls, accidents etc), family history, dietary and social habits, and other treatment that you may have had (chiropractic, physiotherapy, medical or other). These questions help determine the nature of your illness and the state of your health. In addition to the consultation, case history and physical exam, laboratory testing and x-ray examination may be performed. This helps the doctor to get a full understanding of what is happening inside of your body. You may not see any connection between a fall five years ago, an accident as a child, or some other seemingly unrelated event and your present illness, but all these factors will be significant to your doctor of chiropractic when your total health is evaluated.
In some cases, spinal or extra-spinal x-rays may be necessary. While much can be determined from a case history and physical examination, the x-ray enables your doctor to view the specific outline of your spinal column or joints.
Also, your doctor of chiropractic will test the range of motion of your spinal segments. This allows them to determine which joints are not moving properly, and are thus causing stress on areas of your spine. When coupled with postural examination and biomechanical understanding, the doctor will be able to thoroughly explain to you why you are having the pains you are.
If the above examination procedures reveal that you are indeed a candidate for chiropractic treatment, your care will begin shortly. The doctors will take you through a comprehensive report of findings, which will explain to you in great detail, what was found, what the proposed treatment plan is, how long it will take, and how much it will cost.
The doctors at Health From Within pride themselves in patient communication and education. They will educate the patients at every step along the way. If there is ever a question you have regarding your health, please do not hesitate to share it with them!