How Much Chiropractic is Too Much?
This is a tough question to answer. If you ask 10 different chiropractors you will likely get 10 different answers. There is a lot of research regarding chiropractic treatment plans and how they relate to car accidents, but there is not a lot out there on how often, how much and for how long a typical patient should be seen. But that’s ok. Each patient comes to a chiropractic office as a unique case and therefore deserves a unique treatment plan. There really should not be a one-size-fits-all approach to chiropractic. Here is my take on how to decide what you need and what is right for you:
1. How Often Should I be Treated?
This question should be answered based on a thorough history and physical exam. Your treatment frequency will also depend on how long your have been injured and what caused your injury. Many chiropractors have received a bad rap for prescribing too much treatment. So what is too much? Here is a great rule of thumb – When a patient begins receiving treatment I generally treat them every 2-4 days until their symptoms begin to improve. This may last for 1-4 weeks. At the first sign of significant improvement most treatments are reduced to 1x per week. Again, once each patient can go a full week without symptoms recurring their treatment frequency is reduced again to 1x every 10-14 days. This continues until the patient is pain-free for at least a month! At that point we consider them to be a wellness or preventative care patient and recommend that they continue care every 4-6 weeks. Of course every course of treatment is discussed with each patient and we always take into account scheduling, financial need and any other care the patient is receiving.
In a nutshell, most physical medicine prescriptions – such a physical therapy or chiropractic – tend to be somewhere around 12-20 treatments for an acute injury. But most patients will see significant relive in just 1-4 treatments and most injuries are not serious enough to require 20 treatments.
