Many new patients go into a chiropractic clinic because their back hurts or neck hurts. Often the patient is led to an X-ray room and receives 3 or so X-rays of the affected area. Many times the patient is told to return home for a day or two so that the Doctor can review the X-rays and “see” what’s really going on with the spine. Upon the next visit the chiropractor may show the misaligned spine, or a deviation of curvature that should be there, to the patient. Then possibly a series of other x-rays taken of someone who “continued to have poor posture and misalignment” until the joints became arthritic and deformed.
With this idea, that something is horribly wrong in their body – that they’re broken, the chiropractor proceeds to inform the new patient that they are in the right place; that through their chiropractic care, they can restore normal curvature in the spine and reverse degeneration of the joints. Then, the patient is given a care package or a treatment plan that includes coming in for adjustments 2-3 times per week, for 2-4 weeks, then 1-2 times for another 2-4 weeks, then 1 time per week for another 2-4 weeks. The patient is again taken to the X-ray room and the chiropractor shows the progress that they made with curvature of the spine, increased range of motion in the joints and so on. After which the patient is possibly told to come back about 1 time per month for maintenance.
This is a common scare tactic that many doctors use – that something is horribly wrong with the patient, and that the doctor is here to save them from their inevitable future debilitation. Is this a good business model? Are there benefits in going to the chiropractor for that many treatments? Are there cons to going to the chiropractor that often? These are questions that we will look into in our next blog posts.
Yours in Health,
