Dating all the way back to 1897, Chiropractic care has been a professional practice taught by Daniel David Palmer as an alternative method for preventative and restorative health care. After 2-years of research, implementation, and feedback, Mr. Palmer felt that this was a message that needed to be spread to the world.
The Theory of Chiropractic Care
The infancy of chiropractic care focused on spinal manipulation to relieve pain. They believed pressure on the nerves to be relieved through vertebral subluxation, which frees up the nervous system to function more efficiently. In less fancy words, it means to allow the mind and body to better work together and relay messages more efficiently.
Chiropractic Care in Recent Years
More recently, we answer the question of what is chiropractic care as a healing process through manipulation that does not require traditional medical and pharmacological intervention. This means fewer drugs and surgeries.
A board certified and licensed health care professional now performs your chiropractic treatment. Through spinal manipulation, extremity adjustments, a Doctor of Chiropractic works to provide relief for common issues such as back pain, neck pain, shoulder pain, and more.
These services can also provide to a patient as a preventative treatment considered as routine chiropractic care. Since Chiropractic Doctors often take a holistic approach to health, many of their services include additional forms of physiotherapy exercise and nutritional guidance.
Chiropractic care has gained popularity in recent years. Unfortunately, with the upward trend of patients, many chiropractors are taking advantage of patients by over treating and recommending unnecessary services.
Dr. Osland believes in an honest approach to the chiropractic services he offers. Being the local Chiropractor for Ventura county, it is the only way to do business.
Now, let’s get into the specifics about what you can expect from chiropractic manipulation and the overall experience you receive from chiropractic service.
What do Chiropractors Do?
We’ve touched on the origins of chiropractic care and the theory in which this health care methodology began. Now, let’s walk you through the process of what your first visit looks like and exactly what a qualified Chiropractor will do.
- Ask you to fill out a comprehensive health form helping to understand your health history, recent changes to your health, and the lifestyle you follow.
- Perform an in-office assessment of your current range of motion, points of pain or discomfort, and several mind-body related activities.
- During your physical assessment, your Doc will ask follow-up questions to your health form and dig deeper into the information to gain a contextual understanding of your health. These questions may lead to further assessment in order to find the root of the problem.
- Your first chiropractic adjustment will begin once the assessment is complete, and the Doctor has signed off that you are ready to begin treatment. Specific to Osland Chiropractic, we offer ice or heat treatments with leg elevation, helping provide temporary relief to identified areas of muscle or joint pain. This treatment may include a spinal adjustment, neck adjustment, and extremity adjustment.
- At Osland Chiropractic, your treatment finishes with an EMS electrical muscle stimulation unit in order to bring blood flow to the area where you need temporary pain relief. The increased blood flow through electrical muscle stimulation also helps bring nutrients to the affected area and eliminates muscle spasms.
The steps our Chiropractic practice takes for your treatment should give you a strong understanding of what a chiropractor does. For a more scientific understanding, a chiropractor’s primary aim is to relieve back and neck pain through adjustments that lead to improved posture. Creating an optimal neuromuscular skeletal system that functions as efficiently as possible.
While not a cure-all by any means, chiropractic care is a component of a wellness plan built to relieve recent or chronic pain. While you may experience relief after the first treatment by reducing inflammation, health benefits are best experienced by having a Chiropractor reassess when returning for a follow-up treatment. Each visit will help the Doctor better understand the extent of the injury or pain and take dead aim at treating the problem.
Does Science Support Chiropractic Care?
Through an extensive review process, the National Library of Medicine has examined the literature surrounding Chiropractic care and where it may be an effective treatment option for specific conditions. Here is a list of what they reported spinal adjustments and other manipulation of the joints may help with.
- Sports Injuries
- Neck Pain
- Chronic Low Back Pain
- Headaches
- Extremity Conditions
While plausible, we need more research to determine if Chiropractic care helps with asthma, infant colic, autism Spectrum Disorder, along with several spinal cord related and neuromuscular conditions.
Is Chiropractic Safe?
We would like to answer this question with a simple yes, but like any health-related field, it depends on the licensed practitioner. At Logan Osland Chiropractic, we answer this question with yes because of our education, experience, and consideration we take into every patient we have the honor of helping.
Chiropractic care is not safe when the Doctor makes assumptions about conditions or performs services they do not have the education and hands-on experience to perform. You can trust that with our chiropractic office, we’ve got your back!
What Are the Benefits of Chiropractic Care?
Outside of the symptom benefits we discussed, a licensed Chiropractor is helpful as an alternative treatment method. A Chiropractor can see you in a quicker amount of time than you would with a general practitioner. This is especially important for personal injury cases where you experienced pain from an accident at work, in your car, or at a place of business.
Chiropractors also see wellness through a different lens than a traditional health care provider. For your health and wellbeing, having several perspectives is the best way to make a sound decision about what treatment plan you need to follow.
Chiropractic care can also be an affordable pain relief solution. Many insurances will cover all or part of the costs of your treatments. Our office helps you find out exactly what your insurance will cover and bills your services correctly to minimize the potential hassle that they can be.
What Qualifications does a Chiropractor Have?
A Chiropractor is required to have 4200 hours of instruction, much of which is hands-on in a simulated treatment environment. They earn these hours through an accredited chiropractic college that upholds the standards set by the national board of chiropractic examiners. These hours include a complete understanding of anatomical and biological sciences, specific clinical chiropractic sciences, and before becoming licensed, a student must go through a clinical internship.
After graduation, a Chiropractor must continue their education by completing enough CEU’s (continuing education units) as set by the state in which they practice. In California, Dr. Osland must complete 24 CEU’s per year in order to continue his practice. He welcomes this as continuing education is not a burden but a blessing that he enjoys pursuing.
How Much Does Chiropractic Care Cost?
This is not a simple question to answer, as each treatment plan requires a different amount of time. Additionally, each chiropractor sets their own rate. What we can say is that at Osland Chiropractic, we don’t believe in price gouging and tacking on additional services that you don’t need. We take both cash payments and insurance payments so that you can find the option most affordable for you.
What Else Can a Chiropractor Do?
Because of their continued education, most chiropractors offer additional services that are often a part of their standard treatment plans. At Osland Chiropractic, here are some services we offer.
- Kinesio taping provides pain relief by signaling the brain.
- Muscle stimulation to enhance rehabilitation of muscles.
- Spinal decompression to relieve pressure from the nerves that cause pain.
- massage therapy, and other soft tissue therapies.
Who Can Benefit From Chiropractic Care?
Because of our current sedentary society and attachment to our smartphones, a good majority of people can benefit from chiropractic care. Excessive sitting causes acute low back pain caused by muscle imbalances and tight hip flexors. Smartphones cause forward head posture, which creates a headache caused by tight neck muscles. Scientifically speaking, most people suffer from an increase in thoracic kyphosis and a decrease in cervical lordosis because of the way we sit at work, in the car, and at home.
Everyone should at least have an occasional chiropractic adjustment and assessment of their current musculoskeletal physiology.
Chiropractic Care in Ventura County
We invite you to visit with either our Oxnard or Ventura chiropractic care clinic for an evaluation and your first chiropractic treatment. Call our friendly staff to schedule your first appointment with Dr. Osland.