You wake up one day to excruciating pain in your back. Your initial thoughts are you slept in a strange position and things will get better. After days of continuing back pain, you start to realize something is amiss.

Your first instinct might be to go see your doctor. While that’s a viable option, you might do as well to start with a chiropractor. After all, treating neuromuscular skeletal pain issues is exactly what chiropractors are trained to do.

With back pain and no evidence of a significant bodily injury, seeing a chiropractor for treatment is a very viable option. However, there are certain aspects of chiropractic care that warrant consideration. With that in mind, here a five (5) things you should consider before starting chiropractic care.

1. Choosing the Right Chiropractor

Every chiropractor you might consider will have a slightly different profile. Many of them will consider themselves general practitioners while some of them will tend to specialize in certain chiropractic treatments. The chiropractor you choose matters because of the fact you will need to entrust them with addressing your pain. They will also have an effect on your overall well-being.

When choosing a chiropractor, you should consider following these tips:

  • Ask for credentials
  • Consider using a specialist
  • Levels of experience as a licensed chiropractor
  • Gender compatibility
  • Chiropractor communication style
  • Read prior patient reviews and get referrals

While using any information you might gather from your queries, you will need to focus on the things that you consider most important. Ultimately, the right chiropractor will be the one who understands your health issue or issues and will give you the level of care you want and need.

2. What are the Risks and Possible Side Effects

Every medicine and medical treatment comes with risks and side effects. You should never agree to any medical advice until you clearly understand exactly what those risks and side effects might be.

Clearly, invasive surgical procedures come with significant risks and side effects. That’s exactly why surgery for a pain issue should be last on your list of possible treatment options.

Equally clear is the fact chiropractic care comes with significantly fewer risks and side effects. Just the same, you have a personal obligation to ask a chiropractor exactly what the risks and potential side effects would be with a proposed type of treatment.

As a point of reference, you should note there is a high likelihood you would feel some discomfort from any initial treatment. Most chiropractors would tell you that. They would also tell you that the discomfort will diminish as your treatment progresses and healing starts.

3. What Kind of Treatment Options Might Be Used

Chiropractors offer two primary kinds of chiropractic care. Most of their work focuses on spine and joint adjustments. With that said, good chiropractors will not hesitate to use massage therapies as needed.

While in the chiropractic care selection process, you’ll need to tell prospective chiropractors the circumstances surrounding your pain and or injury. They might even take X-rays to get a clearer picture of exactly where the pain and or injury issues are located. They would likely also want to evaluate the extent of the pain and or injury. They do this to ensure the issue at hand is something they would feel comfortable treating.

Once the chiropractor has a sense of that with which they are dealing, they should be able to propose treatment options. It’s at that point you’ll be able to get a sense of how comfortable you are going to be with the entire chiropractic care process.

4. Handling the Cost of Chiropractic Care

Everything has a financial cost. That would certainly include chiropractic care. Once you understand what kind of chiropractic care is being proposed, you would then need to consider how you would cover the costs of that care.

For a moment, let’s assume you don’t have sufficient healthcare insurance. If that is the case, you would recognize right away that the cost of any care you pursue is going to be coming out of your pocket. Under those circumstances, you would certainly be more sensitive about the cost of treatment. It would be incumbent on you to discuss this matter with any chiropractor you have under consideration. You would certainly be within your rights to request a cash discount, something many chiropractors might be willing to do.

If you do have healthcare insurance, you should immediately consult with your insurance company about whether or not chiropractic care is covered by insurance. If it is, you should further inquire about the degree of coverage you would get.

Once all financial issues have been identified and addressed, you can then make an informed decision about going forward with chiropractic care.

5. Setting Final Expectations

The last thing you want to do with any kind of medical treatment is set unreasonable expectations. That is something that absolutely warrants consideration prior to starting chiropractic care. Why?

Sometimes, a chiropractor’s objective is nothing more or less than pain relief. They want to ease pain, but they don’t have a way of fixing the underlying health issue. If you were to start treatment with the expectation of being permanently cured, you might find yourself disappointed even though your chiropractor delivered as promised.

After careful consideration of all of the above, you should have enough information to make an informed decision about getting chiropractic care. That will give you the confidence to make the right choice based on your current circumstances.

If we can help you decide whether or not chiropractic care is the right option for you, you can initiate that conversation by visiting our website.