Are you asking yourself the question: how often should I go to the chiropractor? If yes, you should click here for the key things to know.
For anyone considering chiropractic treatment, there’s one question that always comes to mind first. “How often should I go to the chiropractor?” After all, you can’t make plans for the treatment when you don’t know how big of a time commitment it is.
However, there’s a different answer for everyone who asks that question. To find your answer, keep reading.
First, understand that your ideal appointment frequency depends on many different factors. So, unfortunately, we can’t tell you exactly how frequently you should be visiting a chiropractor. But we can teach you how to figure it out for yourself.
By reading this guide, you’ll learn what determines the frequency of chiropractic visits. From this information, you can accurately estimate how often you’ll be making appointments. To learn all about it, read on.
Is It Possible I Only Need One Appointment?
Unfortunately, there are no “Band-Aid”-type cures in the field of chiropractics. It’s almost unheard of that a patient is healed in a single session.
You see, the point of chiropractics is to return your spine/back, neck, and/or shoulders back to a normal state when they don’t want to heal that way naturally. It’s easier to understand when you compare it to a broken arm.
If you break your arm and don’t put it in a cast, the bones may heal back together incorrectly. Then, they’ll stay that way unless they’re rebroken and set correctly.
In the same way, the bones in your neck and back area can become stuck in an incorrect state. But you can’t fix this with a cast because these bones must be free to move in order to heal.
So, the best we can do is to keep making repeated adjustments until the alignment of these bones returns to normal. This includes both professional treatment at your appointments and physical therapy exercises at home.
Why Do You Need Chiropractic Treatment?
One of the biggest factors that determine the frequency of chiropractic appointments is the type of treatment you need. Or rather, it’s the type of problem you need treatment for.
For example, minor pain that developed recently from an unsupportive office chair may require very few appointments to fix. Serious injuries or pain from years of bad posture will require far more appointments.
So, what do you need treatment for? Is it an injury or something else?
Is the pain major or minor? Is it constant, sporadic, or only when you make certain movements?
Did it only show up recently or have you been dealing with it for a long time? Is it getting worse?
Your St George chiropractor will use questions like these to create your personal treatment plan. In general, though, the seriousness of the pain, the extent of damage from injury, and the amount of time the problem has gone untreated will all increase the duration of your treatment.
Your Lifestyle Affects Your Treatment Schedule
It also makes a difference if the cause of the problem is still occurring. For example, the pain in your neck, back, or shoulders might be caused by bad lifestyle habits.
Lack of exercise, bad posture, and frequent/improper heavy lifting can all contribute to your back pain. It’s even worse when these habits are a big part of your workday at your job.
If you continue these bad habits after your treatment has started, you harm your body as much you heal it. In this case, your treatment duration can continue indefinitely. Fortunately, your chiropractor will tell you how to avoid these harmful issues.
Following/Not Following Your Doctor’s Instructions Affects Your Treatment Schedule
In addition to teaching you how to avoid harmful habits, your chiropractor will probably prescribe physical therapy exercises to do at home. Your obedience to these instructions will increase the effectiveness of the treatment and decrease its duration/appointment frequency.
On the other hand, neglecting these instructions could undo everything your doctor achieves at your appointments. It might even continue to worsen the problem. Following your doctor’s instructions is essential for a timely recovery/completing your treatment at all.
What to Expect From Your Treatment
Here are a few examples of what your particular treatment schedule may look like. Based on the seriousness of your condition, this should give you a basic idea of how frequently you’ll be seeing the chiropractor for back pain.
Serious Conditions
Severe injuries, slipped discs, chronic back pain that’s lasted for years—serious conditions like these require frequent visits, especially at first. At the start of the treatment, such patients may require 2 or 3 visits per week.
When the condition has improved significantly, fewer visits are needed. One visit every one or two weeks should suffice once the condition becomes stable.
Minor Conditions
Conditions that require less intense treatment include muscle spasms, sprains, and strains. These conditions will probably require only one appointment per month.
Maintenance Treatment
After your treatment is complete, continuing maintenance treatments will probably be advised by your chiropractor. This is determined at your doctor’s discretion on a case-by-case basis.
The frequency of these appointments typically depends on the severity of the original condition and your lifestyle. It could be once every two weeks or only a few times per year.
How Often Should I Go to the Chiropractor?
Are you still asking yourself, “How often should I go to the chiropractor?” Hopefully, we’ve given you enough information here to form an accurate estimate.
Based on the guidelines above, you should now have a basic idea of your appointment frequency/treatment duration. On the other hand, perhaps you don’t know what caused your pain, how serious it is, or other relevant factors.
Either way, there’s only one way to know the answer for certain. Make an appointment and talk to a professional chiropractor near you.
Need more health tips? You know where to find them. Click the link to our Health Blog at the top of this page for more great health advice.
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