This is a typical question that many patients have before they begin treatment at my office. Now I can't speak for other Chiropractors but I hope to shed some light about how I come up with a treatment plan for my patients. I must stress that every patient is considered individually and it's hard to apply generalizations when it comes to care but I hope this post helps to clarify what to expect in my office.
It all begins with the first visit. Here I take a thorough history and get a chance to 'see' what we're dealing with. I want to get a sense not only for the nature of the discomfort/pain but I also need to assess how the injury is affecting your function. For example, is it keeping you from work? everyday activities? sports? hobbies? etc. This gives me an idea of the severity or acuteness of the situation. If there was some serious trauma involved, ie. a motor vehicle accident, I generally will recommend three sessions a week for at least the first two weeks. If the injury is moderate, I might recommend a plan of sessions twice a week for two weeks. I inform my patients that the first two weeks of care is very important because from my experience, patients should respond fairly quickly to Chiropractic care. At the end of two weeks, we perform a re-evaluation on the patient. The re-evaluation allows us to monitor and mark the progress we are making. It also serves as 'checkpoints' to ensure that we are reaching our treatment goals and that everybody is satisfied with the progress. At the end of the re-evaluation, I generally like to discuss the treatment frequency again. The goal in my office is to use less and less office visits and encourage the patient to become more active in the recovery process by participating in more home care.
That is another key component in a patient's progress, home care. From nearly the beginning of treatment in my office, patients will be shown and encouraged to practice exercises and stretches at home. I believe that patients can do a lot to further their progress at home if given the right instruction and guidance. But I make it very clear, "If you can do these exercises and stretches at home, you will get better faster!"
Here is obviously where a huge variation in recovery times comes in to play. Some patients are very good at following my home care instructions, they understand the importance of active home care and they participate diligently. It's no wonder that they respond faster and require fewer office visits. However, other patients do not follow home care advice quite as consistently and they tend to take longer to progress. It's really not rocket science but it is up to you.
As time goes on and the patient feels better and better, I strive to spread out the frequency of office visits as much a possible. One of the goals of treatment is to get a patient to the point where they are returning for maintenance care or 'tune-ups' only rarely. Some of my patients have achieved a state of health where they feel they benefit from Chiropractic once a month, others only a couple times a year!
I hope this sheds some light to the question, " How long will it take until I get better?". If you still have questions, please leave a comment here or visit my website; COMMERCIAL DRIVE - EAST VANCOUVER CHIROPRACTOR; DR. DOMINIC CHAN DC
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