The treatment may cause some discomfort, but will only be done to your tolerance. You may also experience some soreness for a day or two after the treatment and in some cases bruising occurs. This is nothing to worry about and just means that more blood has been brought to the area to help heal it. If you experience extreme pain, or pain which lasts longer than a few days, contact your chiropractor for advice.
How many sessions will I need?
This depends on a number of factors; age, lifestyle and chronicity of the problem are just a few to name. Most cases need at least a few treatments to see any benefit. Twice a week is usual to start with, for 2-3 weeks or until significant improvement is seen. Treatments are then spread out gradually to ensure the problem doesn’t return.
Most people respond well to chiropractic treatment, but of course there are patients which don’t respond. In this case, depending on the problem, you may be referred to your GP for further investigation in to the cause of your pain. This way the GP can be given the relevant information from the chiropractor’s findings and treatment to take further action.
When you are pain free, it doesn’t always mean the problem has gone completely. This is especially true of cases of chronic pain where the problem has built up over a period of weeks or months. The problem was likely to be present before you experienced any pain. Although it’s now no longer symptomatic, the cause is likely to still be present. It’s important to have those few extra treatments to ensure it’s not going to creep back up on you.
If you have a history of consistent episodes of pain, it is likely you may need maintenance treatment to prevent future reoccurrence. This varies, but the average is once every 3 months.
The above professions are all different of course, but we share a lot of similarities. Osteopaths are probably the most similar to chiropractors as they use spinal manipulation, but with a slightly different technique. Physiotherapists tend to focus more on rehabilitation exercises, but this is dependent on the individual therapist, and there are physiotherapists who use manipulation techniques too. There will be variation within all professions with regard to technique, but we all have the same goal, which is of course to get you better.
Yes! Pregnancy is renowned for causing low back pain, especially during the third trimester. Chiropractic is both safe and effective in treating women at any stage of pregnancy.
