Upper cervical doctors are different than other
chiropractors. To help you understand the differences, here are the top six
ways your upper cervical doctor will be different than any other doctor of
chiropractic that you will see.
1. Won’t adjust you without x-rays.
Your upper cervical doctor uses x-rays to create a unique
formula to adjust you based on your body’s unique anatomy.
There are many areas of the spine whose motion can help
guide a chiropractic adjustment. The low back and the mid-back, for example,
have built in motion pathways created by the shape of their joints. But there
is a lot more room for movement and error in the upper neck. So it is the
perspective of upper cervical doctors that the junction of the head and the
neck cannot be accurately adjusted without measuring and noting your unique
anatomy on an accurate x-ray.
2. Measure your body’s posture and/or nervous system
function every time you come into the office.
As much as possible, upper cervical doctors use objective
measures of your body’s function to help guide the clinical decision making
process. Your upper cervical doctor may indirectly measure nerve function
using paraspinal thermography (heat reading). Or he or she may visualize your
in-alignment versus your out-of-alignment posture with a number of different
tools that help measure hip height or rotation, shoulder height, and the lean
(or list) of the spine.
3. Won’t adjust you at every single visit.
Upper cervical doctors think differently about the purpose
of the adjustment than many other chiropractors. In other chiropractic systems,
multiple adjustments over many visits are expected, and are helpful. The upper
cervical doctor, however, believes that “holding” the adjustment is more
important than just receiving it. Healing comes from holding your new
alignment. Therefore, the upper cervical doctor will only adjust your upper
cervical spine when your body shows objective signs of needing an adjustment.
If your upper cervical doctor is adjusting at every visit
for many visits in a row, it is a sign that things are not going as well as
they should be.
4. Measure the effectiveness of the adjustment after it is
delivered.
Your upper cervical doctor will conduct one or more
post-adjustment checks every time you get an upper cervical adjustment
according to your adjustment formula. In some cases this may include one or two
post-adjustment x-rays. This may be another thermographic scan, a measure of
your posture, or some other functional test. Unlike other areas of the spine
that snap, twist, and pop when the joint moves, the upper cervical adjustment
intends to restore balance to a very delicate area of the body. The upper
cervical doctor expects immediate changes in some parts of the body’s
functions, and verifies it with a post-adjustment check.
If your upper cervical doctor is adjusting you and just
sending you on your way, then he or she might not be an upper cervical doctor.
5. Always deliver a gentle adjustment.
The upper neck is a delicate area of the body. It’s natural
for the body to lock up when you sense that someone is going to push, pull,
poke or prod this area of neck. Because your body will resist an adjustment
that is too strong, upper cervical doctors use gentle re-alignment procedures
to bring the head and neck into better balance. Your upper cervical doctor will
always deliver a gentle adjustment.
6. Almost always concentrates on head-to-neck balance.
There are many reasons upper cervical doctors started
calling themselves upper cervical doctors, in addition to using the word
“chiropractor.” One major reason is how few chiropractors there really are
using a specific adjusting protocol to re-align the head-to-neck area of the
spine. Another reason is because the name fits: upper cervical doctors will
spend 99% of their time helping your head-to-neck alignment because of how
important it is to your body’s expression of life, health, and longevity…and
because of how vulnerable the area is to injury.
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