CHIROPRACTIC CARE

Manually restoring normal function to the musculoskeletal system

Chiropractic treatments help to restore normal function in the musculoskeletal system. Dysfunctions in this system arise from the body experiencing unnatural positions or movement patterns, which overtime can contribute to changes in muscle health and physical performance. When a muscle or a joint is used in a way that is not natural for the body to maintain, pain or injuries may occur as a sign that an imbalance is present. When a muscle becomes dysfunctional, whether due to injury or chronic imbalances, it affects the movement of the bones that it's connected to. Your bones connect to one another by forming joints, so poor movement of one bone leads to poor function of the joint.

Muscle dysfunction refers to anything that prevents the muscle from performing its natural contract-relax actions. Chiropractors may use terms such as strains, trigger points, knots, tightness, overactivity, or weaknesses to express that you have a dysfunctional muscle pattern. While they each may represent different definitions to the practitioner, they all indicate that your muscle is not working as well as it should be. When a joint becomes dysfunctional chiropractors may describe it as locked, misaligned, restricted, or stuck to indicate that proper motion is not present. Due to the structural and fluid nature of the joint, improper motion between two bones can lead to a development of bubbles that may get in the way of the bones moving to their full ranges. 

In order to restore normal function to muscles and joints, chiropractors use a mixture of soft tissue techniques and different adjustment strategies. Soft tissue techniques may include manual or instrument assisted massages or localized muscular compression to help increase blood flow to the muscles and reset their neurological firing patterns. Once the muscles are in a more relaxed state, chiropractic adjustments are done to restore full motion to the compromised joints. Before the adjustment takes place, the chiropractor manually assesses the motion of each bone surrounding the joint and determines which ones aren't moving like they should. The chiropractor then checks for a natural spring in each joint, which when absent would be identified as a “restriction”. To prepare for the adjustment, the chiropractor places the patient in a position that lines the two adjacent bones up with each other in their natural plane of movement. They then use their hands to provide a short quick thrust within that plane to put the bones through their full range of motion with one another and restore normal function in the joint. When the adjustment is done those "bubbles" taking up space in the joint are released, which contributes to the popping sound often heard during chiropractic adjustments. 

Chiropractic care can be applied to all regions of the body where muscles and bones are present. 

Typical conditions treated:

• Old and new pain (neck, back, shoulder, arm, leg, etc.)

• Headaches

• TMJ Dysfunction

• Poor posture

• Hypomobility 

• Repetitive injuries

• and more!

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Click here to learn about soft tissue techniques

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