Orpington Chiropractic Clinic - Quality Complementary Health Care in Kent

CONDITIONS

Chiropractic helps to reduce pain and discomfort and to promote health and well being by allowing the nervous system that runs through the spine to function at it’s optimum, by ensuring that the spine is working at it’s best.

A wide range of conditions can benefit from chiropractic care, the following are the most common. If your specific concern is not listed, please contact us in confidence to discuss it.

• A word about PAIN...



• A General Approach to Problems


• Back pain


• Neck pain and whiplash


• Sciatica


• Leg, foot and buttock pain


• Headaches, migraine and dizziness


• Shoulder, arm and hand pain


• Muscle tension


• Slipped disc


• Pinched nerves


• Weakness, numbness, pins and needles


• "Wear and tear", arthritis and joint pain


• Scoliosis


• Sports injuries


• Pregnancy care


• Asthma and other breathing difficulties

Some Golden Rules to try and follow!


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A General Approach to Problems:-

Pain and other symptoms can be due to a wide range of conditions for the simple reason that the body, in particular the spine is a very complex structure. There are ligaments to be sprained, muscles that can be strained, joints that can be jammed, nerves can be irritated or trapped and discs that can be fractured or ruptured, to name just a few! A case history and exam will provide most of this information but sometimes additional assessments like x-rays or MRI scans are needed.

This will take you to the "working diagnosis", which is the medical term used for "the most likely explanation". Then a treatment plan can be designed to match the needs of the case and of the individual. Treatment is intended to improve the mechanics of the area and that might be to spread strain onto more capable, adjacent areas, to free up restrictions, to change and improve circulation or muscle tension in the area and to reduce the excitability of pain nerve fibres. One thing that isn't possible is to reverse any existing wear and tear - not even we can make you younger! That said, we can usually make a clear difference for the better. It is rather like tuning up a car as opposed to fitting new parts - which are not generally available for the spine!

If the treatment clearly improves the condition then the working diagnosis was very likely to have been accurate however if the response is not particularly good then a reassessment may be needed to double-check the diagnosis and re-evaluate the treatment plan. Sometimes a second opinion is called for and this can be done either in-house or externally as needed.

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Back pain:-

The first requirement of assessing any condition such as back pain is to make sure that it is amenable to treatment and that it doesn't require a referral to any other specialist or therapist. After that the detective-work begins and the patient will have a comprehensive case history taken and full physical exam given.

Some of the more common problems we deal with are due to ligamentous laxity and sprains, nerve root irritation, disc strains and displacement. Most of these are caused by repeated strains and wear & tear over long periods however the final straw which may bring on the pain can be very minor - slight stooping or even coughing!

Owing to its intimate relationship with the nervous system, the symptoms of back problems (especially pain) frequently spread beyond the immediate spinal area and radiate outward to the buttock, groin and often into the leg. Thoracic spinal problems will often radiate round the ribcage and chest.

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Neck pain and whiplash:-

The neck is vulnerable to all the same problems as the lower back but with the particular consideration that it has a big lump at the end - the head? Nowhere is this more obvious than in the cases of whiplash that we see. Car accidents often involve the car - and therefore the body/bodies inside - changing speed or direction in an instant. The acceleration/deceleration, or G-forces, this creates mean that the head is flung about violently, as if it were on a rag-doll. This is usually so rapidly that the muscles have no time to brace themselves. This is why whiplash is so common in road-traffic accidents.

In exactly the same way that low back problems can cause pain and other sensations (numbness, tingling, etc.) tp spread to the hips, buttocks and legs problems in the neck will frequently caused sensations in the shoulders, arms, hands and especially between the shoulder blades. Correcting the neck problem will usually sort these related symptoms out as well.

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Sciatica:-

The sciatic nerve runs through the buttock and down the back of the leg. It is made up from fibres from several levels at the bottom of the lumbar spine and upper pelvic segments. "True" sciatica involves direct irritation or compression to the nerve roots themselves and is usually tested for with the "Straight-Leg Raise" test. A positive result is one which increases leg pain at or below 30 degrees of raising from the examination table. It doesn't make a huge difference whether yours is a true- or pseudo-sciatica as the treatment we would give is designed for specific variations and conditions.

Variations of this condition often include tingling or numbness in areas supplied by the nerve, altered reflexes and sometimes even muscle weakness and atrophy

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Leg, foot and buttock pain:-

Symptoms and pain in these regions may well form part of a sciatic problem (see above) however there are also local conditions which may be responsible such as knee problems, shin splints and other foot/ankle problems which all need proper evaluation and appropriate treatment. We are lucky to have two specialists in these fields and so finding answers is rarely an issue!

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Headaches, migraine and dizziness:-

Remarkably, brain tissue doesn't actually have any pain nerve endings in it at all. Pain from "inside the skull" can only directly come from the blood vessels themselves or from the coverings of the brain, the meninges. The pain of migraine is the most commonly felt example and this is often accompanied by odd symptoms such as visual disturbances, dizziness and nausea - these are the results of altered blood flow in the brain.

Much more common are the radiated types of discomfort - headaches that may originate as pain or problems in the neck, sinuses or teeth - and then spread up into the head. Both types are often amenable to chiropractic treatment.

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Shoulder, arm and hand pain:-

Neck problems frequently cause minor irritation to the surface of nerves exiting the spine in this area. This is felt as a dull ache from the base of the neck into the shoulder-blade. More definite irritation of the nerves themselves will exhibit as pain going down from the neck itself into the arm and hand. This is identical to the "sciatic" problems people suffer in their legs as a result of lower back problems.

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Muscle tension:-

This is often due to stress and, although your chiropractor may not be able to eradicate the source of stress, we can often lessen the effects significantly by improving structural function. Sometimes the cause may be structural to begin with in which case treatment is nearly always highly effective!

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Slipped disc:-

The old chestnut! On the other hand you may have heard - and we would also say - that discs never "slip" in the literal sense. What happens is that they can split and bulge and this can cause nerves to be irritated or compressed in turn. HOWEVER it is very important to be as precise as possible in the diagnosis of a problem because the treatment for a disc problem and, say, a joint problem imitating a disc, may be quite different.

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Pinched nerves - numbeness, tingling and weakness:-

Nerves can be irritated comparatively easily and this can also cause them to swell as they then become inflamed. Yet because the openings where the nerves exit the spine do not enlarge, so - just as after eating a large meal when wearing snug-fitting trousers - this causes an effective pressure upon the nerve itself. These effects of this are identical to something placing a direct pressure onto the nerve - pains that spread out or radiate, numbness and tingling and even muscle weakness. Once more the solution is to identify the cause and to rectify that.


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"Wear and tear", arthritis and joint pain:-

There is no cure for "old age" though its effects can be minimised and eased. Wear & tear arthritis - or arthrOsis as it should be called - is irreversible. BUT it doesn't necessarily cause pain. Pains may appear quite suddenly with age-related problems but you didn't suddenly get old, did you? And if we make you feel better then it is only by improving your function - we certainly haven't made you younger!

However a "true" inflammatory arthrItis, such as Rheumatoid Arthritis is best treated primarily on an anti-inflammatory basis, though there may be scope for chiropractic care in addition in some cases. Particular conditions such as Ankylosing Spondylitis may well be "true" arthritis but the benefits of chiropractic care, if started early enough, can be profound.

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Scoliosis:-

This is a sideways curvature of the spine and nearly always begins in childhood as the individual grows. The causes can rarely be put right but appropriate therapeutic involvement (including chiropractic) can often make a substantial difference. At maturity the majority of cases stabilise but the shape of the spine can make wear and tear more pronounced.

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Sports injuries:-

Just as a performance car needs to be in a high state of tune, so your body needs to function optimally to give of your best in sport. Add in the wide range of injuries the body can suffer - knocks/bumps, sprains/strains, overuse/ab-use - and it is easy to see that chiropractors can offer sportsmen and women so much!

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Pregnancy care:-

The human frame never, ever changes quite so rapidly or dramatically as it does for women during pregnancy! The new burdens the body faces are substantial and this often causes spinal and related problems which a chiropractor can help ease. And the problems don't just stop after the birth - do they, Ladies?!!

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Asthma and other breathing difficulties:-

It isn't very surprising if you think about it that mechanical problems in the mid-back or thoracic spine will naturally tend to affect the movement and functions of the ribcage - thus affecting breathing. But in addition, any problems affecting the spine and its function may also affect on the nerves that control the muscles in the tubes in the lung. Depending on the levels of spinal involvement this may have a profound effect on breathing. Using chiropractic treatment to alleviate such nerve compromise and by stimulating other levels to "free up" the passageways can be a very effective solution, both short- and long-term.

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Some Golden Rules to try and follow!

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