Chiropractors are licensed doctors who treat about 35 million Americans each year. Much of their work involves restoring mobility to joints and relieving back pain, neck pain, pain in the joints of the arms or legs, and headaches. Chiropractic services cost less on average and are included in most health insurance plans.
How are they trained?
A chiropractor (DC) is a doctor who has completed a four-year graduate school program and has successfully passed the required national board exams. Their training includes a minimum of 4,200 hours of classroom, laboratory, and clinical internship. The average DC program requires as many classroom hours as the average MD program.
Throughout their careers, they maintain their chiropractic license by earning continuing education credits through state-approved programs.
Who sees chiropractors?
Each year about 25% of American adults have back or neck pain bad enough that they seek professional help, and 15% have seen a chiropractor in the last 12 months. Many athletes and dancers also see chiropractors to prevent and treat injuries.
Patients are sometimes referred to chiropractors by their primary physicians. A 2017 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association advocates for the use of chiropractic as the first treatment to try for acute lower back pain.
Consumer Reports found that for low back pain treatments, patients rate chiropractors above physical therapists, MDs, and other medical specialists.
How are patients evaluated?
The first step is to see if chiropractic treatment is appropriate. Chiropractors may use a combination of clinical exam, lab tests, diagnostic imaging, and other evaluative techniques to decide what treatment is best. The clinical exam is gentle and non-invasive.
Sometimes chiropractors refer patients to another health care provider or bring in other health care providers to co-manage the patient’s issues.
What is an adjustment?
Like massage therapists and physical therapists, chiropractors use a hands-on approach to healing. A chiropractic adjustment carefully moves a joint in a very specific, controlled way.
Tissues in the body, whether through a single traumatic event or many small, repetitive actions, can become inflamed, painful, and less mobile. An adjustment, or a series of adjustments over time, seeks to restore mobility, relieve pain, and allow the tissues to heal.
“Chiropractors tend to have very high patient satisfaction rates. And from a public health perspective, we’d see a lot fewer unnecessary tests, hospitalizations, and opioid prescriptions if people visited chiropractors for their back and neck pain.”
A technician for your body
Here’s a short video, narrated in a charming accent, that sketches an overview of how chiropractors do what they do.
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