What to Expect

If something is not right with your body’s foundation, than that needs to be addressed before true health can be achieved. With chiropractic care, your body has to go through a particular plan of care in order to repair itself correctly and fully.

After your initial visit, there are three general phases of chiropractic care: relief care, corrective care, and maintenance.

Your Initial Visit

Patient Forms

Upon entering our office, our receptionist will welcome you and review your paperwork and copy your insurance card if applicable. We will request that you complete our patient forms if you have not already done so. This paperwork, which can be downloaded here, provides us with your health history and information on your condition(s).

Examination

After your consultation, Dr. Rehl will perform a complete chiropractic examination, testing your reflexes, flexibility, range of motion, and posture. He will observe how you stand, bend, walk, and squat. The applied kinesiology segment of the exam will use muscle testing to reveal any imbalances in your body. Other standard neurological, orthopedic, and physical tests may be performed as well. However, nothing will be done in our office without your consent.

X-Ray Studies

Depending on your specific condition(s), we may suggest you get X-rays as well. X-rays show us any limiting factors such as degeneration, alert us of any serious spinal conditions, and help us develop the most effective treatment plan for you as possible. Most people are amazed once they see their X-rays up close. In some cases, they can even identify their misalignments and degeneration themselves.

Report of Findings

Once the information is collected and examinations are performed, Dr. Rehl will give you a report of findings and answer any questions including:

  1. How can you help me?
  2. How often do I need to come in?
  3. What will my treatment cost?

After reviewing your health history and goals, and examining your spine and X-rays, Dr. Rehl will discuss recommendations and notify you if your condition requires care with other providers. He will then provide you with an overview of his proposed treatments.

Treatment

At this point in your initial appointment, you can choose to experience your first treatment. This may include spinal and/or extra-spinal adjustments, soft tissue massage, deep tissue work (on fascial restrictions and/or scar tissue), neuro-muscular reeducation, or other forms of therapy. Treatment is interactive, so you can express your preferences and concerns at anytime.

Wellness Program

Prior to leaving, Dr. Rehl will suggest a wellness program to incorporate outside of treatment. If you are in pain when you first come into our office this may include: ice or heat application instructions, certain activities or positions to avoid, and at home exercises and/or stretches. If you desire, we can also help you to create healthy habits and routines for your lifestyle. Every person is unique, therefore everyone requires a customized wellness plan. The purpose of our wellness program is for you to achieve good spinal alignment, have a healthy diet, exercise, and maintain a positive mental state.

Relief Care

Many people go to a chiropractor because they are in pain. In this first phase of care, the main goal is to reduce your symptoms. Sometimes this will require daily visits, or two to three visits per week for a time.

Most people are under the assumption that if they don’t feel any pain that there is nothing wrong with them – that they are healthy. Unfortunately, pain is a very poor indicator of health. In fact, pain and other symptoms frequently only appear after a disease or other condition has become advanced.

For example, consider a cavity in your tooth. Does it hurt when it first develops or only after it has become serious? How about heart disease? Regardless of whether you are talking about cancer, heart disease, diabetes, stress, or problems with the spine, pain is usually the last thing to appear. When you begin chiropractic care, pain is also the first symptom to disappear, even though much of the underlying condition remains.

Corrective Care

Most chiropractors regard the elimination of symptoms as the easiest part of care. However, if all that a chiropractor does is to reduce the pain and stop there, the chances of the condition recurring are much greater. In order to prevent a rapid recurrence of symptoms, it is necessary to continue receiving care even though your symptoms are gone.

During the correction/restorative phase of your care, you will not have to receive adjustments as often as you did during the first phase of care.  This is the perfect time to continue working on and resolving the underlying problems and imbalances that led to your symptoms in the first place.

Do not be discouraged if you have mild flare-ups of your symptoms on occasion. This is normal. Flare-ups are bound to occur during this phase because your body has not fully healed. Depending on the severity of your injury or condition and how long you have been suffering from it, this phase of your care may last anywhere from a few months to a couple of years.

Maintenance

Once your body has fully healed, routine chiropractic care can help ensure that your physical problems do not return, and will help keep your body in optimal condition. Just like continuing an exercise program and eating well in order to sustain the benefits of exercise and proper diet, it is necessary to continue chiropractic care to ensure the health of your musculoskeletal system.

When you make routine chiropractic care a part of your lifestyle, you avoid many of the aches and pains that so many people suffer through, your joints will last longer and you will be able to engage in more of the activities you love.