Hi, I’m David Rowe from Rowe Chiropractic Offices. Let’s talk about how we correct—correct—the cause of neck pain.
The Discovery Exam
We talked in a previous video that, in order to find out what the problem is that’s causing the neck pain, we do what’s called a discovery exam. The discovery exam is a comprehensive evaluation of your spine to see what’s actually happening.
In the discovery exam, we look at posture and alignment. We check for motion to see if the vertebrae are flexible and moving correctly. We look for swelling that could be putting pressure directly on the delicate nerves.
Then we take a computerized photographic study that gives us more information about alignment, and we can take an X-ray that gives us even more information about the alignment. Since we’re looking inside, we can see the health of the discs. We can see if there are any arthritic changes.
This discovery exam gives us a comprehensive look at exactly what’s causing the neck pain.
Identifying the Misalignment
Okay, so we put that together for a patient. Let’s say the basic cause of the neck pain for this patient is that their head is shifted to the right side—that their alignment has subluxated. We use that term to describe misalignment.
Their spine has subluxated out of alignment from the front view. From the side view, let’s say that their head is too far forward and they’ve lost their normal neck arch.
Remember, from the side view, we’re supposed to have a curve in the neck like that. Just to give you a good review, when you look at a dry spine, there should be a curve like that. That curve allows a great shock absorber to be built in. That’s normal alignment.
But if somebody’s head subluxates too far forward, they lose their normal curve from the front view, and that pulls on the spinal cord, causing undue stress.
All right, so we’ve evaluated this patient. We’ve figured out exactly what their misalignment is. Now we’re going to come up with strategies to correct it.
Creating a Specific Chiropractic Adjustment
All right, let’s go back to this example. Their head is subluxated to the right side. They’re shifted out of alignment.
The first thing we’ll do is create a chiropractic adjustment specifically to correct it. So, if their head has shifted this way, we’ll create an adjustment to push their head in the other direction. Awesome.
The adjustment will help free up the stuck joint and start to take the stress off the nerves. We know that chiropractic adjustments can be incredibly helpful in decreasing inflammation and decreasing pain. But by themselves, they don’t do a great job of actually realigning the posture.
Rehabilitating the Posture
Okay, so this is the chiropractor saying, “Well, we need something more than just that amazing, life-giving adjustment. We’re going to rehabilitate the posture.”
Let’s say the patient’s head is like this. We’re going to teach them a therapeutic exercise where they shift their head to the opposite side. So, as we adjust to take the stress off the nerve, they do the therapeutic exercise to pull in that direction.
By doing a very specific, one-sided exercise, they can go from their subluxated misalignment and start to move toward alignment. Wow, that’s a big help.
If their head is too far forward like this and they’ve lost a neck curve, we can teach them some type of therapeutic exercise to pull them back into a curve.
Remodeling the Spine With Traction
All of these can be incredibly helpful, but there’s one other piece to this. The research tells us—and we see this clinically, absolutely—that in order to change things like the complexity of a reverse neck curve in the spine, or some very, very severe postural misalignment, we’ll have to use some kind of technique to hold the spine in a corrected position for over 10 minutes so that we can remodel the joints back to their normal, corrected position.
It’s actually how orthodontics works. Orthodontists will either put braces on 24 hours a day or have you wear Invisalign for 22 hours a day, but the model is the same. We have to create stress to retrain the spine back to that curved position.
All this equipment that you see behind me here—these are specific traction devices that we use to reeducate and remodel the spine toward normal.
So, we create the adjustment, we create the therapeutic exercise, and then we’re going to create traction. If the patient has a reverse neck curve, we’ll pull one strap going this way and then another strap going that way, and we’ll hold the spine in a corrected position.
We do it repetitively over time—some in the office. We also have some amazing home traction units that patients can use to help themselves. They’re called Denneroll, but these are all specific to each individual.
The process is putting the spine back toward a corrected position, putting it under tension, holding it for a minimum of 10 minutes, and then doing it repetitively to, if you will, orthodontically—we’ll just use that model—remodel the spine back toward correction.
Taking the Stress off the Nervous System
By correcting the mechanics, the posture, and the actual position of the spine, it takes the stress off the nervous system and allows the brain to send a normal signal. Now your body doesn’t have to give you the pain signal.
The body says, “All right, they’re correcting the problem, so we’ll turn the fire alarm off. We’ll turn the red alert sign off.” Then the pain goes away.
But most importantly, as you correct the subluxation, as you correct the posture and the alignment, all the nerves—not just the pain-sensitive nerves, but all the nerves—begin to function better. The body begins to repair, and that’s how we get healthier.
We find the subluxation, the misalignment, from the discovery exam, but we correct it with a process of specific chiropractic adjustments, therapeutic exercises, and in-office and home traction.
We do that repetitively over time to get the spine to go back to its normal alignment, to take the stress off the nerves so the nerves can heal and the body can return to normal, healthy, lifetime function.
That’s how we fix it.
