New Patients
What Should You Expect on Your First Visit With Us?
At Exodus Chiropractic our examinations procedures are geared toward detection and correction of the "Vertebral Subluxation". The procedures we use are therefore specifically selected for your spine and nervous system health. There are a couple of things that you should expect when you have a first visit at our clinic.
Our Examination consists of a thorough spinal and nervous system exam which includes "Palpation". Palpation essentially is checking your spine by hand. With this exam the doctor can feel areas of your spine that may be involved with subluxations problems. Spinal position, curvatures and muscle tone can also be examined as it relates to possible spinal subluxations.
Your examination will also include a computerized examination called the "Insight Millennium Subluxation Examination." This examination involves several important components.
The first part of this examination process involves reading spinal heat differences from one level of the spine to another, as well as from one side of the spine to the other. Heat is a by product of circulation, which is controlled by the autonomic nervous system. From this we can see how subluxation may be affecting these functions of your nervous system.
In the second part of this examination the Insight Millennium Subluxation Examination scans the surface of your spinal area for surface electrical impulses, and measures them along your spine. This helps measure the affect of subluxation on the motor nerve system and the affect subluxations may be having on your muscles.
The importance of each of these tests will be explained to you at your Report of Findings. However, it is important to note that this examination helps scientifically understand the subluxation processes going on in your spine. It also gives us a baseline for future tests so we can accurately measure your progress to see how your spine is correcting and your nervous system is functioning. Using the Insight Millennium Subluxation Examination is much more accurate that just depending on "how you feel" on any given day.
Spinal x-rays may be taken depending on your age, and situation. There are many reasons why we would not take x-rays on certain patients including pregnancy, most children, recent usable spinal x-rays and some other various situations. Aside from these situations, x-rays are a common part of the examination process when looking for vertebral subluxations. X-rays give us important information including the position of the spinal bones, and the quality of the spine and safety of adjusting it. X-rays also tell us the relative length of time subluxations may have been involved in your spine. Commonly, most patients receive three spinal x-rays at the beginning of care.
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What Should You Expect on Your Second Visit With Us?
The Doctor’s Report (Tuesday 6:45 p.m. and Thursday 1:00 p.m. (by appointment only))
This appointment is by far the Most Important one of your care!
At this appointment, you will hear a short presentation in a group setting by our doctors. They will explain what specific scientific adjustments will do to increase your life span and remove sickness and disease from the body. Once the presentation is complete, you will meet with a doctor individually to receive your test results from the first visit. Following your consult with the doctor, you will receive your first adjustment.
To make sure you get the most out of the Doctor’s Report, here are a few tips.
- Plan approximately one to two hours for the report.
- We kindly ask that no young children attend.
- Afterwards our doctors will answer any questions regarding your health or the health of your loved ones.
- If possible please bring a spouse, family member, or friend so they can be apart of this wonderful evening as well.
- Be prepared to experience life changes!
- Pizza will be provided… come hungry.
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Your First Adjustment
Things to Consider Following Your First Adjustment
All new patients receive fewer adjustments at a more gentle force for their first adjustment. The purpose for this is to determine how your body will respond to the adjustments before we begin more aggressive care. Once we observe that your body is not sensitive to the adjustments we will increase the number of regions adjusted and the amount of force we set on the instrument.
Don’t be discouraged if you do not notice immediate, lasting improvement from this first adjustment. It likely took years for your body to get into the condition that it is in right now, and it will take time and repetition of care to reverse the effects of years of stress and degeneration on the joints, muscles and nerves of the spine.
Our Doctors may recommend that you follow a program of care over several months and many treatments. Our goal with this approach to chiropractic care is to create lasting change and correction rather than just pain or symptom relief.
Following this adjustment you will no longer need to make any further appointments to receive treatment. For your convenience, we offer an “open schedule” practice that allows you to decide what days and times work best for you to receive your care.
In some cases the joints we adjust may become sore after the first treatments. This occurs because of irritation of chronically inflamed joints or nerves. If this happens to you, the symptoms are temporary much like the initial soreness that a person might have after starting a new exercise program. The best way to reduce this soreness is to place an icepack on the painful area for 15-20 minutes (never longer than 20 minutes, do not use heat, repeat icing as needed).
This “tonal” chiropractic technique actually works with your body’s natural movement and motion to help your body naturally correct the restricted and misaligned segments in your spine and pelvis. Because of this we encourage all new patients to make time to dedicate to regular exercise while they are under care. Simply walking for 15-20 minutes each day can make a huge difference in the results you will see during your care.
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Frequently Asked Questions:
How do you know where to adjust?
We have been fortunate to have been able to care for thousands of patients all with their own body type and health challenges. With that experience we are able to use many different types of “indicators” when deciding where to adjust each patient, and to do it efficiently and effectively. For example we use our hands to detect subtle changes in spinal muscle tension, inflammation, tension or tone of the joints, and restricted motion or misalignment of the joints. We are constantly visually observing patients for changes in posture, unusual walking patterns, head tilt or rotation, along with many other visual indicators that can uncover a clue of where an underlying problem exists. X-rays serve to help us confirm what we are feeling with our hands or observing with our eyes.
Why do you look at my feet so much while doing the adjustment?
Subluxations in the spine and pelvis will create imbalances in posture, strength and motion that can be measured by many different tools. One way to quickly measure that imbalance is to observe a person’s functional leg length. We “check your feet” frequently to measure your leg length and to see how it changes as we make corrections to your spine. Using these leg length indicators do not tell us where to adjust, but rather inform us of how balanced your spine is and how tension on the spinal cord is changing with each adjustment we make.
What is that tool that you use? How does it work?
The instrument that we use is called an Integrator. It has nothing to do with pressure points or some kind of bizarre, new age energy healing. Over years of stress, the joints of the spine can lose motion and symmetry and eventually will begin placing pressure and tension on the nerves they were made to protect. In order to heal these diseased and damaged joints, we must restore motion to the “stuck” joint and place it back into a healthy position. To accomplish this, a certain amount of force must be applied to a very specific area of the spine. The Integrator allows us to correct these damaged joints and nerves in a very gentle way by creating force through speed and acceleration rather than mass and brute strength. It also allows us the opportunity to be very, very specific to correct the exact joint that needs correction without effecting the healthy joints around it.
(See torque release section for more details.)
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