Chiropractors can be incredibly helpful when it comes to correcting structural imbalances, relieving pain, and providing comprehensive care that can help to cure many ills. Broadly speaking, chiropractic visits and chiropractic adjustments can be a huge blessing for people who are in pain or injured. However, many patients have wondered an important question when it comes to visiting the chiropractor: Why is one visit not enough? Why do you have to come back again, and again, and again? There are some very legitimate medical reasons for that. Here’s an overview of why.
3 Phased Care
Many chiropractors subscribe to the idea that care occurs in phases, not just in one good neck crack. This means that they believe that you will move towards a more optimal health.
First: Pain / Symptom Phase. This may take several visits close together for multiple weeks, you will feel less pain, more range of motion and flexibility. Lots of soft tissue work (ART) and mobility stretches. Symptoms are the first thing that goes away and the last to show up. Therefore to make lasting change you must move on to phase 2.
Second: Stability and Change Phase: These phase visits are usually weekly and focus on not just proper alignment but exercises to strengthen the problem areas and teaching good habits so that your spine can become more stable and improve your overall posture. It is at this point you can be released from care or you can do what most patients do is move on to phase three.
Third, Maintenance Phase: a chiropractor will work with you in order to improve your overall wellness. Less often visits, usually between 2x a month to once every 6 weeks depending on your lifestyle and life stresses. These visits correct misalignments that may come up and continue exercise advice.
All three of these phases can be significant projects and take multiple visits. Remember, instant healing is not real: Healing and wellness take place with time and investment from you. Repeated chiropractic visits are necessary because they can help you and your body at its optimal level which allows it better protect itself against what you put it through or what external stresses you encounter.
Cumulative Impact
Remember, just like any other treatment, the effect of chiropractic adjustments is cumulative. You need to make multiple visits because your body cannot simply pop back into alignment. While a single adjustment can help you relieve pain and get your body back to a state of full functioning, it is worth remembering that your body likely didn’t arrive in the pain that it is in overnight. Instead, it’s something that likely happened over time. The healing that will occur thanks to an adjustment will take place over time as well.
Preventative Care
The old expression about an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure is an accurate one. This is what maintenance care is about. These regular check-ups that the chiropractor may recommend ensures that no problems are developing. Remember, the purpose of chiropractic visits like this is to stop you from being in pain, to begin with. In this sense, a few wellness visits may help you to prevent dozens of visits later down the line, as well as unknown amounts of pain or grief.
View it Like Medicine
If, at the end of the day, you’re still struggling with a reason about why you need multiple visits, look at it this way: Let’s say you have strep throat and go to the doctor, who prescribes you an antibiotic. You would never just take one dose of that medicine and be done with it, right? Adjustments work the same way. Their effects occur over time, not just one dose. That’s now how medicine works, and that’s not how the human body works.
If you are looking to heal an issue or get a general checkup, make sure to reach out to our chiropractic clinic today. A chiropractic visit can go a long way to giving you a more pain-free life. Book now or give us a call at (415) 521-3073.
