I KNOW WHAT I NEED YOU TO DO, DOC, I’VE WATCHED THE VIDEOS!
You know what you need?
Recently we have experienced a few patients who come into the clinic and tell us that they have seen a video of chiropractic adjustments and they know what they need us to do in order to relieve their pain. This may be so, but are your sure?
Why we do what we do
We do what we do based on the best evidence available that reports treatment that is most effective for joint pain. We keep up to date with current quality research so that the treatment you receive from us at the Avenue Clinic is as relevant to your condition as it can be.
We want to give you best value for your money, we will never try to sell you ‘Snake Oil Remedies’!
When you consult one of the chiropractors at the Avenue Clinic, we will ask you to complete a form to tell us about all of your history to include of your past and current health problems, operations, accidents, illnesses, medication previous treatment you may have had. Then we will take a case history covers your present problem that you would like us to help you with.
We will not sell you silly treatments for which there is no basis. We will not tell you that your spine needs to be ‘cracked’ from top to bottom in order for you to remain healthy!
Sometimes you will wonder why on earth we need to know your entire medical history, not just about your joint problems. The body is interconnected in many complex ways and it can be that an illness you have had many years ago could have impacted on the quality of your bones or supporting tissues. We need to understand this before we start to treat you so that we do the best for you and do not cause harm because we were unaware of something like that. Even something that happened when you were young may affect you years later so please tell us everything – don’t think we won’t be interested because ‘it has nothing to do with my joints’! Let us decide – more information about you is better than not enough!
We will discuss accidents and illness you have experienced and your current and past hobbies and sports along with your fears and worries.
We will then examine you and based on all of this evidence we gather, only at that point will we decide whether we think we can help you without the need for X-rays or scans first.
When we have built up a picture of what might be the cause of your pain, we will discuss our findings and suggest the best course of action to help to relieve your pain.
Yes but it feels sore ‘here’ – I know what I need better than you!
You can often think that because part of you hurts – that is where the problem is. It might be but then again it might not be – let us decide. Often you can feel pain in your foot such that you can’t walk properly. It could be a problem with your foot or an issue with your back. If we treat the wrong part of you then you won’t get any better.The video shows a chiropractor treating ALL of my back – can I have that please – I love all that ‘cracking’!
Please don’t come in and ask us to do something like that! There are lots of mad things on line.
At the Avenue Clinic we treat using the best evidence for what will help you, not only to relieve your pain in the short term but to try to make sure you don’t need to keep coming in to see us.
If we treated every joint in your back, it would be just as silly as asking a surgeon to operate on your whole body, when your problem is in one area. We need to be as specific as we can to treat the area that is at the root of your problem then give you advice of how you can help us to prevent it coming back or at least reduce the frequency that it returns if it is a long standing problem.
You need to try to build strength and stability because if your joints are properly protected, then they will not move around too much and cause pain when you try to do things like repeated heavy lifting, gardening, sitting awkwardly etc. If muscles around a joint are as strong as possible, this cuts down the risk of injury. We will discuss the best exercises to help you.
This website discusses the best exercises to help you too – have a look round and you might be surprised at the help you will find.
