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Chiropractic Care
Science-based and Results-Oriented
Chiropractic care is a patient-centred, non-invasive, hands-on, regulated health care profession focused on your spine, muscles, joints and nervous system.
Chiropractors use the best available evidence and clinical expertise to diagnose issues that affect your body’s movement. They treat them without medication or surgery and prevent them from returning. Chiropractic care can also promote health and improve your quality of life, as well as help with pain relief at our health clinic.
What is A Chiropractor?
Doctors of chiropractic, called ‘chiropractors’ are spine, muscle, joint and nervous system experts. Every chiropractor receives at least six to seven years of post-secondary academic and clinical education.
They are trained in how to evaluate, diagnose, recommend and deliver a treatment plan that manages issues within these systems, according to your preferences. A chiropractor’s education also includes courses in radiology, pain management, prescribed exercise and rehabilitation, among others.
Based on the best available evidence, combined with their clinical expertise, your chiropractor will then work with you to determine the best treatment to relieve your pain. They will also help prevent it from returning and restore your mobility.
Some of the conditions chiropractors treat include:
- Back pain
- Neck pain
- Strains
- Sprains
- Pain associated with arthritis
- Work and sports injuries
Chiropractic Treatments
After a first appointment to assess your condition, your Chiropractor will use their clinical expertise and the best available evidence to make a diagnosis and recommend treatment options for you.
Chiropractic care is the primary method of treatment for many medical conditions, such as low back pain. For other conditions, such as pain associated with arthritis, diabetes or osteoporosis, chiropractors and other health professionals recommend an interprofessional approach. So in these situations, your chiropractor will coordinate with other health care professionals in your circle of care to support your overall treatment. Working with this team, they will provide chiropractic care to relieve your spine, muscle or joint pain. If you are seeking a Mississauga Chiropractor, we can help you!
Chiropractors use many different treatments depending on their patient’s specific needs and preferences. Common treatments include:
- Manual, ‘hands-on’ therapy
- Soft tissue therapy
- Electronic modalities, such as therapeutic ultrasound and cold laser therapy
- Customized, therapeutic exercise programs
- Self-management tools and techniques (like positions for relief or coping strategies for pain)
- Advice and education for pain relief
Manual Manipulation
One of the most frequent treatments a chiropractor uses is manual manipulation of the vertebrae of your spine or other joints, which is called an ‘adjustment.’ To perform an adjustment, your chiropractor will use their hands to apply controlled force to your joint and guide it through a range of motion. This action restores your joint’s natural movement and improves its function.
When applied to your spine, this treatment is called spinal manipulation therapy (SMT). Manipulation is also used on other joints, such as those in your wrist, ankle or foot, as an effective treatment
Does Chiropractic Work?
Some people ask is chiropractic effective? A growing body of evidence-based research offers proof chiropractic care works. It does this by demonstrating the value of chiropractic care in addressing conditions affecting your spine, muscles, joints or nervous system. Some key evidence-based highlights are cited below:
- A 2019 U.S. study found that 64 per cent of patients who saw a chiropractor were less likely to use opioids than people who didn’t, as reported in the journal Pain Medicine
- 83 per cent of patients surveyed now rely less on medication, including opioids, to help manage their low back pain, after receiving care from a musculoskeletal (spine, muscle or joint) expert, such as a chiropractor, at one of Ontario’s government-funded Primary Care Low Back Pain program sites.
The 2017 Canadian Guideline for Opioid Therapy and Chronic Non-Cancer Pain recommends therapies without medication, such as spinal or joint manipulation and therapeutic exercise, for treating back pain, as well as neck pain, knee osteoarthritis, fibromyalgia and severe headaches or migraines.
- The American College of Physicians Low Back Pain Systemic Review demonstrated that exercise is effective for reducing long-term (chronic) low back pain and spinal manipulation provided better short-term pain relief than other active interventions.4
- Studies have shown that people who receive chiropractic care are more likely to be physically able to work in a shorter duration of time