It is extremely important that you understand that often one visit will not completely “cure” you or reduce your symptoms one hundred percent. If you have moderate to severe pain, one visit may reduce your pain significantly but usually will not eliminate it.

While some people do experience almost instant relief, others discover that the healing process can take weeks or even months. Every patient recovers at their own pace due to factors related to age, nutrition, level of activity, quality of sleep, and how the spine is supported throughout a daily routine.

Relief Care, or Patch Care, is better than no care, but it is at best a stop-gap measure. It’s like having a hole in your car tire that you patch up. You know the fix won’t last but the problem has at least been taken care of for the short term.

Every patient, based on his or her health goals, will have to decide if they want to fix the underlying problem causing their symptoms, or merely patch it. The latter choice is called Relief Care.

Relief Care simply means that a patient decides to come for treatment only as long as it takes to get out of pain or get symptomatic relief. Many patients may choose relief care often due to financial or time considerations, or perhaps a personal philosophy rooted in the old “no pain, no problem” mindset that has become so prevalent in our culture.

However, Relief Care tends to be cyclical. Pain relief is achieved, but because the underlying spinal structural problem has not been completely corrected and stabilized, the pain/symptoms return after a period of time. This leads to more visits to achieve relief again. While we’re happy to help these patients (again), we’ve often wondered if they could have avoided their problem with less cost, time and inconvenience by continuing their care in the first place.

On the other hand, Corrective Care seeks to achieve long-term stability, so that you can enjoy the benefit of a stable spine and a properly functioning neuromusculoskeletal system.

Once your symptoms are gone, it is important to realize that lack of pain does not equal stability. Pain relief is merely the first part of the process. Keep in mind that there are two benefits to chiropractic:

1). Getting your spine realigned to “reconnect” the nervous system.

2). Keeping it that way.

The goal of corrective care is to provide stability to your spine. From a practical stand point this means long-term relief.

Do not be discouraged if you have mild flare-ups in your symptoms on occasion during your course of treatment. This is normal. Flare-ups are bound to occur during this phase because your body has not fully healed and yet, you still have to go through many of the very same activities of daily living that helped cause the problem in the first place. Depending on the severity of your injury or condition, your age and overall fitness level, this phase of your care may vary in length. We will formulate a plan specific to your case and periodically re-evaluate you so that we can objectively determine how your care is progressing.

In addition to skeletal misalignment seen in subluxations, muscles and connective tissues can be out of place or strained by improper alignment and use. We teach special “blueprint” exercises and stretches designed to restore strength and flexibility to problem areas as well as to improve posture. These exercises and stretches teach you to help strengthen and correct your own unique problem. We teach these to you in the clinic, but they can be performed in the comfort of your own home and can improve the effectiveness of your chiropractic care by as much as 30-40%.

We often find that certain habits have to be changed for long-term corrective changes to be allowed to take place. Often, we may “coach” our patients on certain activities they should avoid or do differently to avoid aggravating their particular health challenge. This may include ergonomic tips for your computer workstation or advising you on your sleeping posture. Our goal is to make sure that you’re not doing things in your daily routine that would counteract your care.

Finally, it is important to recognize that your diet may play a large role in your overall pain level. If it is part of your healthcare goals, we can provide specific recommendations on nutritional supplements and healthy food choices to enhance not only the results of your chiropractic care but also to restore your overall health.

At the end of a corrective care plan, we will take new X-rays of your spine and compare them back to your original set to determine if stability has been achieved or not.  Often, patients that have been through a corrective care plan see structural changes on their X-rays that they would have not thought possible.  

Whether or not you want Relief Care of Corrective care is entirely up to you. Regardless of your decision, we’re here to help you achieve your individual health goals.

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