Fixing the Pain vs. Fixing the Problem

Are you looking to fix the pain, or are you looking to fix the actual problem causing the pain?

This might seem like a silly question, but our answer to this simple question is what makes our practice different.  For the last 10 years, we have chosen to only offer treatment that actually fixes your problem. That is why we do not offer cold laser, cryotherapy, e-stim, decompression, traditional adjustments (most of the time), Graston technique, Kinesiotape, hot and cold therapy, massage, and so many more.  The cost of our care is higher because you are paying for us to NOT do any form of treatment that doesn’t have your best future self in mind. You are paying for what we don’t do just as much as what we do do :o)

Traditional adjustments, the majority of the time, reduce your pain without fixing the underlying problem.  They do not fix 99% of musculoskeletal injuries. So when you get adjusted and your pain goes away, it is no different than popping a few painkillers and going about your day thinking everything is a-ok.

This is not cool!  Reducing someone’s pain is easy!  Any profession, including chiropractic has ways of reducing pain.  The problem is, the majority of them are only offering a “bandaid treatment” because they believe that’s all the patient wants. 

When a doctor only looks at ways of reducing your pain and not fixing your problem, they should be telling you the following:

“Ok, you want the pain gone.  I can perform this injection, adjustment, electrical stim, massage, acupuncture, cryotherapy, or you can take this pain killer or steroid dose pack, and your pain will be reduced but…………. if you continue what you are doing in the state you are in, your problem will continue to get worse over time resulting in a more serious injury with permanent irreversible damage.”

Doesn’t sound like something I would want to agree to!  Then again, this statement isn’t happening, so it’s not the patients fault when they agree to any of the above.  And yes, as a patient, we believe that if the pain is gone, the problem is gone. Unfortunately, pain alone is not reliable enough to determine if you have still have an injury or not.

What all of us want deep down, as a patient, is long-term health.  They may not even think that themselves at first, but they will when they lose their health and ability to move earlier in life than expected.  These are the people that are having replacements and surgeries in their 30’s and 40’s. This is because they didn’t get the right help in their 20’s.  Nobody took the time to tell them what they were doing was not a good idea for their future health. Nobody took the time to identify the problem and present them with a solution so that their back, neck, shoulders, knees, and hips would be pain-free and last the rest of their lives.