Having the largest chiropractic college in the world right in its backyard, Atlanta can be a confusing place to find a chiropractor. Similar to finding a dentist, medical doctor, mechanic, or hair dresser it is important to do research if you’re looking to find out who is the best chiropractor in Atlanta. In today’s article we’ll discuss how to choose a chiropractor and provide questions you should ask yourself and the chiropractor you’re visiting.
Choosing the Best Chiropractor
There are certain strategies I feel are very important when seeking to find a chiropractor that give you and your family the best care.
1. How thorough is the consultation?
The first day in a chiropractic office is what sets the tone for the relationship and is the determining factor for what the patient will need. In our office we use the first visit to analyze the entire spine to figure out:
- Can we help this person?
- If so, how long will it take?
- How often will we need to see them?
These questions are important in the first day and should be asked by the chiropractor your visit. This will help you achieve your goal and not waste your time.
To give you an idea of which tests we utilize here is a list of what 99% of each client receive on their first visit:
- Blood pressure: Research shows chiropractic can lower blood pressure better than two medications
- Spirometer: This detects lung capacity and how much air a person can blow out. We track this number since our office specializes in corrective care and as the patients posture improves they are able to increase their lung capacity
- Grip strength: Each patient should be stronger by roughly 10-20% on their dominant hand. By assessing this we can determine if there is soft tissue or nerve blockage not allowing for increasing grip strength.
- Nerve scans: We use digital thermography to assess the nerves in the spine to detect stress on the nervous system. This can help us locate pinched nerves and see where the problem is coming from.
- Postural assessment: Each person receives a front and side view picture so we can track to measure if the spine is moving back into it’s normal position.
- Digital x-rays: It is important to have a set of x-rays done on the spine to measure the curves and make sure it is straight on the front view but has 3 smooth flowing curves on the side view. Since we are one of the only offices in Atlanta to specialize in corrective care we use these first x-rays as a base in order to help our patient get as close to normal.
2) Do they adjust on the first visit?
When I look for chiropractors in other states for people that need them the first question I ask is “Do you adjust on the first visit?”. If the chiropractor adjusts on the first visit this means I immediately hang up the phone and call the next chiropractor.
Personally, if I was visiting any healthcare provider or personal trainer I would prefer they perform all the testing and gather as much data as possible then follow-up with me the next day or two days later to review their findings.
3) Are there classes to learn more about the body and how it works?
An area I feel we specialize in which I would hope more healthcare providers followed suit is education. The term doctor literally means teacher and unfortunately this is not the case in our healthcare world.
Our office holds 4 classes a month to help our patients know what they can do at home to achieve the best results and keep their bodies healthy. Two of these classes are our Natural Healthcare Orientation which is the first class each patient will attend to explain to them how they got their spine in this situation and steps to take to get the best results in the quickest amount of time.
4) What is the follow-up protocol to track progress?
Most doctors track progress based on symptoms and how their patient feels. Unfortunately, this does not work as they are a lot of people walking around who feel great but they have heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and other diseases that do not show symptoms until the latter stages. This is why our office focuses heavily on objective results versus subjective results.
We re-evaluate the spine using all of our technology to strategically show someone is getting better not because their symptoms are going away. This is very important in healthcare as most people only care for their health when they are symptomatic but neglect their health when they are asymptomatic.
