For over a decade I have been practicing as a chiropractor in Pensacola, Florida. Over this time, I have been using different types of techniques, including manual chiropractic adjustments, to adjust the patients who come into our office seeking relief from car accident injury, neck pain and back pain, radiating symptoms into the upper and lower extremities and headaches. I specifically remember several patients asking me about the different ways I have adjusted them and how come I have used different methods at different times in their treatment. One patient even said to Your Pensacola Chiropractor “I went to my last chiropractor for years and was only adjusted one way, but you have adjusted me three different ways in just three months!” This patient also asked why this was the case, so I went on to explain to them, as will be explained here over a series of blog posts, the different types of adjustments we perform at Gilmore Chiropractic.
One patient even said to Your Pensacola Chiropractor “I went to my last chiropractor for years and was only adjusted one way, but you have adjusted me three different ways in just three months!”
First you need to understand that when Your Pensacola Chiropractor performs an adjustment, a force is being applied to a bone so that the bone/joint complex will move in a specific direction. Once the desired direction is determined, I then use one of the following techniques to perform the adjustment. The main techniques we use are Manual, Activator and Flexion-Distraction techniques.
Manual Chiropractic Adjustments
Manual adjustments are the type of treatment most people associate with Chiropractors. They involve Your Pensacola Chiropractor using his hands to maneuver a bone in the neck, back, hips and shoulders in such a way to apply a force to the bone/joint complex so that they move in a desired direction. This is sometimes explained as the bone being moved “back into place”. If a joint does not allow a bone to move in a specific direction the amount it is designed to, that bone is not going to be able to align itself properly. During this type of adjustment many patients feel their neck or back are being twisted or “cracked” but it is much more specific than that. Your Pensacola Chiropractor has determined from evaluation and examination of each individual patient which bone/joint complexes need to move and the direction these complexes need to move in order to restore better function to the specific bone/joint complex. It should be noted that the “cracking” or “popping” noise that is sometimes heard during the adjustment is called a cavitation. In an article on SpineUniverse.com, Ron Grassi, DC MS ACFEI explains what is occurring to cause that “popping” noise. He says the cavitation “is caused by small pockets of air or bubbles, which are in the fluid that surrounds your joints. When joint tissues are stretched during a chiropractic adjustment, the pockets of air “pop,” which creates that cracking sound you hear”. Your Pensacola Chiropractor and Dr. Grassi want you to “Rest assured, though: That pop during a chiropractic spinal adjustment is completely normal”.
“Your Pensacola Chiropractor has determined from evaluation and examination of each individual patient which bone/joint complexes need to move and the direction these complexes need to move in order to restore better function to the specific bone/joint complex.”
While the manual adjustment described above is very beneficial for many of our patients, there are many reasons that the use of a different adjusting technique needs to be implemented. Sometimes it is as simple as a patient not liking the “cracking” sound of a cavitation. In other circumstances Your Pensacola Chiropractor determines a manual adjustment could potentially cause more damage to the patient due to specific circumstances. Please check our blog again soon as we continue to explain the different ways we help restore function to our patients at our chiropractic office in Pensacola, FL.
