The majority of my patients who come in suffer from back pain. There are two categories:
Recent pain — This type of pain is caused by an injury to the back due to a trauma that occurred. The trauma could be in the form of an auto accident or sports injury.
Ongoing chronic pain — Individuals who have endured back pain for months, sometimes for years, often find that it’s interfering with their regular activity.
Offering a Different Approach
If you’d like to manage or resolve your back pain without medication, we offer a drug-free approach at Get Back Health Chiropractic and Wellness Clinic. Through the chiropractic adjustment, most of my patients typically feel relief within one or two visits. I mainly use Gonstead and Diversified techniques. Dr. Gerard uses the Sacro Occipital Technique and provides cranial adjustments.
In addition to giving an adjustment, I’ll also provide patients with support activities they can do alongside the adjustment. Patients who also have extremity issues that they communicate during their appointments will be given specific exercises for that extremity.
How to Prevent Back Pain
Doing postural checks
For patients who work a desk job, I’ll show them a diagram of how they should set themselves up ergonomically, either at a sitting desk or a standing desk. Sometimes I will have them take photos of themselves sitting at their office. Or, I’ll look at how they’re sitting in a chair at their house. It will give me an idea of what their posture looks like.
Often, I’ll take a picture of someone’s posture from the lateral standing position and then provide postural exercises. Then in four weeks, another photo is taken so I can see how that posture changes. If someone has pain in their spine in some location, I would advise them to use tennis balls on their back. They can find videos on YouTube demonstrating a tennis ball massage.
Providing trigger point instruction
Sometimes, I would have a patient bring in a family member such as a spouse or someone else who is close to them. I’ll teach that individual the trigger point therapy program to assist their loved one. I’ve found that people feel better when they can do something themselves and aren’t dependent on what gets done in our office.
Ensuring You Get the Care You Need
If I see that, after 5 or 6 visits, that someone isn’t doing as well as the person or I would expect or want, I will refer the patient to another practitioner in the community. These practitioners include physiotherapists and acupuncturists.
You don’t have to put up with your persistent back pain. Contact our practice today to schedule an appointment.