If I start going to a chiropractor, do I have to keep on going to get the benefits?

Question

Dr. Gabrielle Manto, DC · Answer

If I start going to a chiropractor, do I have to keep on going to get the benefits? Great question because this is a huge misconception within my profession. That once I go to the chiropractor, I always have to go to the chiropractor and that's simply not true. So we call the first phase of care the restorative phase of care. So this is when you and your chiropractor are actively working towards big goals that you have set out for care. That being like decrease in pain, improve digestion, improve sleep, improve with anxiety, so on and so forth. After that restorative phase of care is over and you have reached your goals, you usually have two options. One is to stop. Two is to keep going on a wellness or maintenance or routine basis. At the end of the day, you get to decide what works best for you and your health. You have to figure out, okay, does this feel like something that could be part of my wellness journey? Or maybe I just want to stop and do something else. It's just like eating well and exercising, there will always be benefits to going to the chiropractor. But that doesn't necessarily mean that you will go back into a chronic path where we have to revisit your goals time and time again. So you don't necessarily have to keep going after you've reached your goals. There will always be benefits. But at the end of the day, that is something that you have to discern for yourself. Most people choose to go down a wellness path because that's what they value. And that's what they feel is going to help them stay well and keep healing. But again, you don't have to in order to continue to get benefits.

Dr. Lisa Goodman, DC · Answer

If I love this question, if I start going to a chiropractor, do I have to keep going to get the benefits? I've answered this once before and I kind of like this visual. Most people's idea of sort of their perfect pain level, function level, you know, let's just pick that line homeostasis. Most of the time they start to see a chiropractor when they drop below that level and as soon as an adjustment or a couple of treatments, this can happen with massage or PT as well, they get to homeostasis. Let's say they come back in and continue a little bit more. All of a sudden their tolerance and their ceiling for their new homeostasis is here. So what I think happens on a perception level is now a patient's used to living in this world and when that drops below it could even be above where they thought was okay or average for them before and that is no longer okay or average for them. So now they want to come back in and get treated and get adjusted. So part of it is patient perception. Your perception of what is tolerable to you as far as pain or comfort or performance is going to change after getting a couple of chiropractic adjustments for the better, but it may result in you needing to get adjusted to maintain that level of preference. That being said, you don't have to keep going to get the benefits. Sorry, what I meant to say is you will want to keep going to get the benefits of chiropractic care and there's no risk to going regularly to get those benefits.

Dr. Sean Burkhardt,DC,FIBFN-FN,CCSP,CFMP,CSCS,CSPS,TSAC-F,PES,CES · Answer

What's up everyone? Dr. Sean here. I have another question today that reads, if I start going to a chiropractor, do I have to keep on going to get the benefits? I actually really like this question and I'm going to answer it in two ways. I'm going to be my own devil's advocate to this. So what I would say is when you go to the chiropractor, you're probably going for a reason. Maybe it's injury rehab, maybe you need some performance help, but the key thing is they should help you with what you're looking for. If that happens to be through joint mobilization or adjustments, then I would say you're going to initially keep going because that chiropractor is going to be able to give you specific care to areas where you're not going to be able to self adjust. And what do I mean by this? When you look at the spine or any joint, they're very specific shapes. So to be really specific and making sure we're moving what needs to be moved, it's all about physics and angles and so forth like that. That being said, once you got that moving, we should be giving you reinforcement training to help you move and maintain that. So if we can do that, you're going to be visiting a chiropractor significantly less and less and less. The times that you go back is when you can't self fix that, whether that's through stretching, mobilization, or exercise. So the other answer is, yeah, if you go to a chiropractor and you get the benefit from it, you should keep going. It doesn't mean you have to go once a week or even once a month, but it's like, you know, brushing your teeth or doing a good diet. Once it helps you, you want to figure out how much you need to implement that to either keep you at the level you're trying to be at, or maybe you do a little bit more to help you achieve a goal. So in short, no, you don't have to keep going. We should make you independent by teaching you how to help yourself, but there are going to be times where you can always visit us when you need that additional help.

Nicky Kirk, DC, MS · Answer

This is a stick which is often used to beat the chiropractic profession with by individuals who maybe are opposed to people getting chiropractic care. The reality is that everything we do should be based on informed consent. That is to say that we propose a treatment strategy, we outline the risks, we outline the potential benefits and then it's up to you as the patient to decide if that's something which you want to continue with or not and you reserve the right to stop going at any time. The benefits of chiropractic care are often people looking to just simply get out of pain. What the research has shown is that those who continue to receive chiropractic care over a period of time for chronic low back issues will experience less incidences of low back pain and less severity per incidence but not prevention altogether.

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"If I start going to a chiropractor, do I have to keep on going to get the benefits?"