Orpington Chiropractic Clinic - Quality Complementary Health Care in Kent

"Tell me more about what happens to me as a chiropractic patient..."

The Initial Consultation
The Second Visit
Chiropractic Treatment
Later On
Uncertain if we can help you?

On your first visit:-

The first consultation takes approximately 45 minutes. It is during this consultation that information is obtained so that a diagnosis of your complaint can be made.

Your Case History

This is basically an in-depth chat whereby information is obtained relevant to your condition i.e. where it hurts, what makes it worse and better, etc. Your previous medical history will also be covered for any relevant clues to the cause of your complaint.

A Physical Examination

This is an assessment of the features which affect your complaint including range of movement, palpation, muscle tests and provocative manoeuvres. This will highlight the location and severity of the complaint and the structures involved.

A neurological exam includes an assessment of the function of the nerves in the spine or extremities. This is a thorough examination of the sensation, muscle strength and reflexes. This will indicate which nerves are being affected by your condition.

X-rays

These are taken only if necessary. These help rule out non-mechanical causes of pain such as an infection or fracture. In addition, observing the spine in a weight-bearing (standing) posture provides us with extra information regarding the areas of the spine which are under stress on a day to day basis. The extent of the mechanical complaint can also be ascertained by assessing the degree of degeneration.

Treatment

Treatment will depend on the findings from the initial part of the first consultation and could include an array of treatments such as mobilisation, manipulation, soft tissue work, flexion-distraction, stretching, ultrasound and interferential therapy. Usually only a limited amount of treatment is given on the initial visit to minimise the risk of soreness that might happen after also doing the examination tests.

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On your second visit:-

"The Report of Findings"

At the second visit, the chiropractor will give a report of their findings in your case. Whereas the first visit was for the chiropractor to find out about the condition, this second visit is for you to find out as much as possible from the chiropractor. Having made a full assessment on your initial visit, he or she will have had the opportunity to make a detailed and considered judgement of the facts and of what the best solution should be. This second visit will involve a discussion regarding the cause of injury, the actual diagnosis and the connections with the physical examination. If any x-rays have been taken at the initial consultation, these will also be reviewed with you.

The three key questions everyone has are; “What is it, can you fix it and how much will it cost?”.

Other common questions might be; “Will I get better?, How long will the treatment take?, How can I prevent it happening again?, Is there anything that I do in my lifestyle that makes it worse?, How many treatments will it take?, Can I come in on a maintenance type basis in future to keep my back loose?”. We will endeavour to cover all these points so that your understanding is as complete as possible.

We strongly recommend that you bring in your partner, someone else in your family, or a friend to help remember all this information — it is sometimes hard to take it all in at once and having a “spare brain” on hand isn’t a bad idea at all!

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Chiropractic treatment:-

"What is it like?"

There's one very fundamental thing that every chiropractor can say in almost every case that doctors can't and that is... "There's nothing I will do to you that I haven't had done to me - probably loads of times!" As students we all must train on each other (the hands-on practical side of our training lasts not less than two and a half years) before we are let near a "real" patient and we all continue to get treatment from our colleagues as we get older because we know the benefits!

The classical chiropractic manipulation, or "adjustment" as we call it, is a very small but very fast movement of one bone relative to another to restore position or movement. As we do this a tiny amount of gas is released from the joint fluid and this is heard as the "pop" or "crack". It is absolutely harmless though it can sound alarming, particularly in the neck where the sound goes straight through bones to the inner ear!

There are many more treatment techniques that chiropractors use beside "cracking joints" and these include a range of soft-tissue, mobilising and stretching techniques aswell as the use of modern technology such as ultrasound and interferential equipment.

We firmly believe that patient education is absolutely crucial as a means of helping avoid further damage or relapse - and if you follow our advice it will almost certainly help you spend less on chiropractic fees in the future!

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Later on:-

"How Can I Stay Well?"

Chiropractic treatment will rarely be entirely successful without removing the cause of the musculoskeletal complaint. From the initial consultation, we would have a diagnosis for the cause of the complaint but what extra factors contributed to the development of this complaint in the first place?.

Many patients often say, “But I didn’t do anything apart from putting my sock on - how could I have hurt my back from doing such a minor activity?”. This is because there was obviously a weakness to start with and this minor activity has just been the end factor to cause the injury, i.e. the straw that broke the camel’s back. Except in trauma situations, such as a car crash, the large majority of complaints we see and treat develop secondary to an accumulation of repetitive micro-trauma, such as sitting on poorly designed or adjusted seats or from poor lifting technique, etc. This results in the development in long-term faulty posture and muscle weakness/ loss of motor control. These factors must therefore be dealt with to prevent avoidable recurrences of the complaint.

By performing any prescribed exercises and improving your day-to-day techniques these issues can be addressed which will help with decreasing pain and preventing reoccurrences.

YOU are the owner and driver of this vehicle — we are just the mechanics!

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Uncertain?

"Is is it right for me?"

Many people over the years have asked this same question because they simply didn't know very much about chiropractic at all. We have always recognised this and have an answer that doesn't require anyone to commit or risk anything other than 20 minutes or so of their time.

Ring our reception team and ask for a free "Spine Check" appointment with either of our doctors (male or female). There is no charge for these appointments which give YOU a chance to evaluate us and give US a chance to make some initial comment on your case for you to think over at your leisure.

Think of it as being able to dip a toe in the water first!

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