People often associate chiropractors as medical professionals who deal with back, neck, or spine problems. While this is true in many cases, chiropractic doctors are trained to help people maintain their current state of health through chiropractic massage therapy.
Chiropractors are doctors, which means they have much more formal education than those who have graduated massage therapy programs or even colleges. That is because the field of chiropractic deals with the delicate nervous system, much of which is encased in the spine, so must be treated with expert care.
How Does Chiropractic Therapy Work?
Traditional chiropractors give what is often called “adjustments,” which are an actual adjustment of misaligned vertebrae or disks in the spine and neck. This kind of spinal manipulation is often accompanied by audible snapping or popping sounds.
Although these adjustments can almost instantly relieve pain and pressure, they can scare off some timid would-be patients. Therefore, many chiropractors are introducing massage therapy to their practice, which can have just as many benefits as traditional spinal manipulation.
What is the difference between chiropractic and massage therapy?
Unlike massage therapists, who can only work with clients telling them about their aches and pains along with what is visibly out of alignment, chiropractors can take complete physical examinations, including x-rays. By collaborating with other medical professionals, such as neurologists or orthopedists, a chiropractor has better access to a patient’s full bill of health and can, therefore, tailor a more effective regimen of chiropractic massage therapy.
Once the initial pain or spinal disorder is diagnosed, it might be recommended that the patient have ongoing chiropractic massage therapy to maintain a pain-free existence. Therefore, a chiropractor’s clientele would likely be a mix of first-time patients as well as those who return for wellness treatments.
Find a Chiropractic Colleges
When you enroll in chiropractic college, you will be introduced to a variety of new and traditional techniques in the care of the spine and the rest of the nervous system. If you wish to open your practice and have an extensive, regular roster of clients, you need to know a variety of techniques, including chiropractic massage therapy, that can assist a wide range of clients in living healthful, pain-free lives.