Spinal adjustments are defined as a quick, gentle thrust to the spine intended to provide pain relief and increase mobility. Your chiropractor will ask you to sit or lay down on the treatment table, depending on where your pain is located. They will apply a gentle force to the joint with their hands – which will often be accompanied by a “popping” sound. The “popping” sound is believed to be the release of air pockets from the fluid inside the joint – much like cracking your knuckles. 

Acupuncture is a therapeutic technique that involves the insertion of very thin needles through the skin to stimulate nerves, muscles, and connective tissues with the goal of decreasing pain and inducing a relaxation response. Once the needles are in place, you will relax for a period of time, during which time your chiropractor may gently twirl the needles, apply heat, or stimulate the needles with electric pulses – this generally applies more stimulation and is intended to increase the effects of standard acupuncture.

Acupuncture can help improve blood flow where the needles are inserted, reduce pain and inflammation, and improve activation of muscles that may have been reduced due to prior injury to the tissue. At the Pain and Wellness Centre, all of our chiropractors are certified medical acupuncture providers.

Exercise therapy is defined as exercise that is prescribed by your health care provider to improve pain or movement problem. After your initial Chiropractic assessment and diagnosis, you may be recommended specific exercises or stretches to help strengthen your muscles and improve function. Recommended exercises might range from gentle stretches to improve flexibility, strengthening exercises or full workouts in the gym supervised by your chiropractor.

At the Pain and Wellness Centre, exercise is key ingredient in an effective treatment plan. Our goals with exercise therapy are to reduce pain, improve muscular endurance, mobility, and ultimately improve the quality of your life.

Additionally, all Chiropractors at our centre are strength and conditioning experts who provide customized exercise prescriptions depending on the patients problem in a goal based approach. Although hands-on manual therapy techniques can help relieve pain, it is the exercises that have been provided that allow a patient to make fundamental changes in their pain, mobility and endurance.

Chiropractors must complete a University degree before applying to Chiropractic college. Once accepted, they undergo a 4-year degree which consists of 5000 hours of various courses similar to a medical education. There is a strong focus on anatomy, physiology, orthopaedics, radiology, diagnosis of neurological and musculoskeletal conditions, and manual therapy skill training. In the last year of Chiropractic college, the chiropractic student treats patients under experienced Chiropractors developing real world experience. After graduating with a Doctor of Chiropractic (D.C.), a chiropractor must pass a series of board and licensing examinations to be eligible to practice in Ontario. 

During the initial Chiropractic visit, patients should expect a comprehensive assessment to help determine the cause of the problem and how to treat it. The appointment is broken down into 4 parts:

1. Detailed history - Patients are asked relevant questions relating to the details of their current complaint, what tests or treatments have they received and whether the treatments worked for them, general health history, and information regarding sleep, mood, home and work environment, occupation, among many other things. The goal is to obtain a global understanding of the patient’s problems.

2. Physical examination - With the information obtained from the history, the practitioner will examine the patient’s posture, gait, range of movements, will perform special tests relating to the areas of complaints, assess areas of tenderness to palpation, and also conduct a thorough neurological examination.

3. Report of findings - With the information obtained from the history and physical examination, your Chiropractor will discuss what they found during the exam and a diagnosis will be communicated and thoroughly explained. At times a patient may be referred for further testing if more information is required to make that diagnosis.

4. Plan of Management - After the diagnosis is made, the Chiropractor will recommend various treatments and propose a duration of treatment to effectively deal with the problem. The risk of those treatments will be discussed and if the patient consents to the plan, a written consent is signed and the treatment journey begins.

Most supplementary insurance plans cover some percentage of your chiropractic care. Check with your insurance benefits advisor to determine the portion that will be covered. If you have been in an automobile accident, your vehicle insurance coverage should include chiropractic care and physiotherapy. If you don’t have insurance coverage, treatments will have to be paid out of pocket.

This depends on the nature of your pain. For new and mild concerns, it is not uncommon for our chiropractors to help their patients reach maximal therapeutic recovery within 1-2 treatments. For long standing pains that are more chronic in nature, it may be difficult to achieve meaningful levels of pain relief following a single visit. There are many factors that determine a patient's response to pain, and how long their experience will last.

On your first visit, your chiropractor will discuss with you the origin of your pain, help you understand aggravating factors to avoid, and develop a treatment plan that will outline the necessary steps to improving your pain.

Yes. Our Chiropractors are experienced rehab specialists and strength coaches who often work with their patients long after their pain has been alleviated, in order to help build more strength and endurance to further reduce the chance of future pain episodes.

Additionally, it is common for patients to seek out help from our chiropractors for guidance on a return to activities, such as running, or to help get them off the ground with some general exercise programming and coaching.

Many patients find benefit with periodic visits to their Chiropractor, this is referred to as maintenance care. Our chiropractors work to decrease these pain problems from coming back by implementing the right exercises and proactively addressing lifestyle changes to make sure the pain does not return. While it may not be necessary for many individuals, you can always chat with your health professional to find out whether it may be beneficial for you.

Our chiropractors are experienced in the use of various manual therapy techniques which can ALL create a mild level of soreness especially if you have never experienced one of these treatments before, similar to when a person experiences soreness after exercising for the first time in a while.

If you do experience mild soreness following your treatment, it will likely be short-lived and you should not be overly concerned by this. During your next appointment, make sure to discuss this with your Chiropractor. Soreness is more common following the first few treatments and typically lessens after each follow-up treatment.

All manual therapy treatments carry some minor risks. After a thorough assessment by one of our Chiropractors, treatments will be specifically chosen based on the patient’s needs and will only be recommended if the benefits of the treatment approach greatly outweighs the risk.

Our chiropractors commonly use various soft tissue therapies, medical acupuncture, spinal or joint mobilization/manipulation, and exercise as a part of your visit. All of these manual therapies are safe when they are applied appropriately. Apart from a mild risk of post-treatment soreness, there are no major risks associated with these treatment approaches when they are correctly utilized.