What to Avoid when looking for a Chiropractor?
How to avoid the wrong Chiropractor?
Choosing the right chiropractor is key to you getting quality care and treatment. However, when looking for the right chiropractor, it is perhaps equally as important to consider what to avoid when looking for a Chiropractor. Here are some useful tips on this subject.
Red Flag’s to be aware of:
Offering large treatment block bookings (20+)
Scheduling 3 treatments a week
Indefinite monthly appointments
Standard x-rays for new patients
Scare mongering, by suggesting if you don’t have treatment your symptoms will become irreversible
Not being able to speak or communicate with the chiropractor prior to booking
See more detailed reasons below
Large number of block bookings:
We see quite a few patients who come to us for a “second opinion” after being patients at other clinics, where they were trying to sell them discounted treatments if they signed up for staggering numbers of treatments as a block. (20-30 appointments)
While you may think that this is saving you money by getting a reduction in treatment costs ask yourself this one simple question.
How does the chiropractor know that your issue will take 30 treatments to fix? Why not 18, 24 and so on.
There is no way a Chiropractor, or any other health professional can predict an outcome that far along in treatments.
In my experience, if you are not showing good improvement within 4-5 treatments then this would indicate either you aren’t going to respond, you need further investigation, you may need to be referred elsewhere, or an alternative diagnosis should be considered. Therefore, to pay for 20-30+ appointments upfront is completely inappropriate, since they do not know if you are going to improve under their care yet.
There is never an excuse or reason for these outrageous numbers of treatments and hearing new patients telling us they have handed over £1500+ for a treatment block of 30+ treatments at other clinics, with negligible results is unethical. I have seen too many of these patients over my 20 years in practice, yet sadly, typically only 4-5 appointments is all they needed.
This method of block booking is suggestive that money is the priority, over the patient.
Multiple treatments per week
If you contact a clinic or chiropractor and are told that you need 3 treatments a week, for several weeks, then walk away.
This may sound a good idea at first as you may feel that the more treatment the better, but in fact over treatment has a negative affect and will counteract any progress your body has made and may lead to a reversal.
Your body needs time to recover and adjust to treatment. It is quite normal for a patient to be a little sore for 24-48 hours after chiropractic treatment, following which improvement should start to show. Being treated 3 times a week means that just as your body would be about to take over and start recovering and healing, it is being influenced and disturbed again. That is why appointments are set approximately a week apart so you can heal and then the chiropractor can see progress and treat accordingly. The exception to this could be with very severe debilitating pain, when perhaps you would be seen twice a week for a week or two.
Maintenance Treatment:
For a small handful of patients, “maintenance care” may be helpful.. This means that seeing your chiropractor every 3 months to maintain the improvement you have made. The patients this helps with are those who for example have an occupation which is casing their issue, so gradually over time it may start returning. For those patients with 10 years of issues, which have improved well with chiropractic care, yet due to body memory it may gradually return. Seeing your chiropractor every few months to therefore treat any cumulation of issue and prevent any acute episodes could help. BUT, for the majority of patients this isn’t needed.
I would rarely recommend maintenance care. I would resolve a patients issue and then discharge them. If they return having experienced a further episode of issue, this would then be our indication that it may be beneficial to see them every few months.
Please beware of this maitenance style of treatment. For an issue of only a few months or few years, where you are not in a strenuous occupation, it is rarely ever needed.
X-Rays for new patients
It is so rare that a spinal X-ray will provide us with any relevant information, other than if we suspect a spinal fracture. I hear of clinics insisting new patients need full spinal X-rays on their first appointment, to “see” what is going on. Since the majority of back and neck pain is a functional issue, you would never “see” this on an X-ray and a competent chiropractor should easily be able to diagnose the issue with a through examination and case history taking.
Patients are often left concerned when they are told their spine on the X-ray isn’t at the correct angle (in compassion to a text book perfect spine), or they have arthritis in the spine (which most people in their early 30’s will demonstrate on an X-ray). It is these ‘findings’ which are then used as reasons for stating 30 appointments are required to stop the issue deteriorating. Scare mongering.
If spinal X-rays are offered, unless you have had a massive trauma and a fracture is being considered, please ask for their justification in exposing you to x-ray radiation, other than that you have to pay for this.
Not being able to speak or communicate with the chiropractor:
You should be able to speak or email directly with a therapist prior to booking, should you wish.
We regularly talk to potential new patients and recommend them to see a specialist that will help them if we don’t feel chiropractic is suitable.
We do hope that his helps you avoid making the wrong Chiropractic choice and remember to read our guide on what to look for in a chiropractor to help you make the right choice
Thanks for reading
Lindsay Beardsworth