I’d like to talk about problem-solving care vs. wellness care in chiropractic. Most of the time people initiate care with a chiropractor to address a particular problem or symptom, usually musculoskeletal in nature. What happens after the issue improves or resolves varies from person to person. Some discontinue care entirely, while others return if the problem (or other problems) re-occurs. Some will adopt a loose schedule of ongoing maintenance visits to fill in the gaps between any symptom-based care they may need and still others incorporate a wellness aproach with regular adjustments aside from feeling bad or good.

With all of these different approaches to care it is important to clarify the difference between a symptom-based adjustment and a wellness adjustment. Actually, there isn’t one!  A chiropractic adjustment has a singular goal every time it is performed; to detect and help the body correct spinal misalignments (subluxations) which are interfering with the nervous system’s ability to properly express health. This is the same on the first adjustment as it is on the 5,000th. Therefore every adjustment is both problem-solving and wellness-promoting at the same time. There are always problems which are addressed through spinal care, even though most of them are asymptomatic and there are always potential problems which adjustments help to keep from becoming an issue.

Most of you know that I am a strong advocate for wellness care. I frequently use the examples of changing the oil in your car or having preventative denatl care to support the concept of proactive spinal maintenance. Waiting for poor spinal health to result in dis-ease in the body is like waiting for a tooth to abscess before going to the dentist.

So the real distinction between symptom care and wellness care resides in the mindset of the patient. I encourage you to consider the preventative benefits of chiropractic; after 23 years of observation in my practice it is a clinical fact that long-term wellness patients tend to have fewer symptom-based problems and are more pro-active about their health overall.

See you in then office!