Looking for Wellness?

The difference between acute care and wellness care is that, with acute care, we are usually treating a painful condition. An example of acute care would be the treatment we provide to someone who has just injured her lower back lifting. Visits for acute care are typically more frequent. Wellness care, on the other hand, is oriented toward maintaining an individual’s function and, perhaps just as important, working toward prevention. A good example of wellness care would be a person that comes to our office hoping to maintain her spine in “good shape” so the likelihood of back injuries is minimized. Visits for wellness care are typically less frequent.

The possible short term benefits of chiropractic wellness care include maintaining the gains, i.e. pain reduction and increased spinal stability, achieved after a patient has undergone a course of acute, active treatment. Short term wellness also allows us to monitor the patient’s spine to detect any unfavorable sequellae, or negative developments, in spinal stability or function that may impact the patient’s prognosis.

The possible long term benefits of chiropractic wellness care include maintaining the gains achieved with a patient’s spine over extended periods of time. Long term wellness care is an excellent clinical tool for the patient that wants to maintain their spine, (just like using dental hygienist visits to care for teeth, for example), and minimize the possibility of re-injury or development of spinal arthritis. Long term wellness is also appropriate for the active person, or athlete, in order to work toward counteracting the stresses and strains that may impact the spine during exercise or various activities (for example tennis, bowling, biking, weight-lifting, running).

It is always less costly to try to maintain health and prevent injury than to deal, for example, with neglected, deteriorating health or an acute injury occurring from a weak, abnormally functioning, misaligned spine. We have observed over many years in practice that the patient who elects to do some wellness care spends far less, over time, that the individual who elects to do acute care only.

In our office we do wellness care for all areas of the spine, including the neck, middle back region (between the shoulder blades) and neck. We also provide wellness services for extremities: knees, hips, feet; shoulders, elbows, wrists, hands. When needed, we prescribe therapeutic exercises, orthotics (custom inserts) for shoes, and nutritional supplementation.

Consider electing to do some wellness care for the spine (or extremities) for all of the reasons mentioned above. No one really likes spending on medical care, but often it makes a huge difference in a person’s quality of life. For example, dental hygienist teeth cleanings are wellness care; without them our teeth develop pathology (e.g. gum disease). Similarly, in the absence of chiropractic hygienic check-ups, the spine may suffer over time.