Our Signature Approach
Care in this office utilizes the best of both worlds combining passive interventions with active interventions to guide you carefully through your journey to health through the early stages of acute pain relief on to the later stages of improving strength, endurance, and flexibility to minimize the risk of re-injury.
The 4 Phases of Care
The doctors tailor patient treatment plans to what is appropriate for that specific person based on the following:
- how severe/acute they presented to the office
- how long it has been going on, and
- how the patient responded to initial care
Although everyone is different, there is a typical pattern that we follow when scheduling a treatment plan. We’ve established the four phases of care to act as a guide to accomplish our patients’ individual goals. Each of the components of the care plan are essential to the healing process. If a patient should choose to opt out of care at any point, they may have an increased likelihood of experiencing a re-occurrence of their symptoms.
Relief/Acute Phase
When a member of the practice enters the office for the first time, they typically need care focused on reducing pain to help them return to their normal activities of daily living such as working, caring for their family, and simply taking care of themselves. This initial phase of care typically takes two to four weeks to complete. The goals in this phase of care are to alleviate pain, reduce inflammation, and reduce muscle spasm and guarding. Phase 1 primarily utilizes passive therapies to accomplish said goals. Here is a list of passive therapies we provide based on each patients’ individual needs.
- Chiropractic adjustments (manual and instrument assisted)
- Activator Methods
- Non-surgical spinal decompression (Flexion-Distraction Technique)
- Low force joint mobilization
- Cryotherapy/Hydrocollator (cold-pack and moist heat therapies)
- Assisted stretching
- Instrument-assisted soft tissue release (myofascial scraping)
- Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS)
- Myofascial cupping
- Kinesiology tape
Corrective Phase
Phase 2 begins after the first re-evaluation. Depending on the patients’ general health and their response to care throughout their initial phase, the Corrective Phase typically takes 4-8 weeks with a graduation in frequency of visits. The goals in Phase 2 are to correct compensatory posture and movement patterns and retrain proper muscle function by way of stretching and releasing “tight” muscle groups and improving the endurance of “weak” or dysfunctional muscle groups. To accomplish these goals, our providers reduce passive modalities utilized during treatment and focus primarily on improving the neuromuscular connection and re-establish balanced movement patterns with the chiropractic adjustment and active therapies. Examples of active therapies utilized by our providers are listed below with a clickable link to our YouTube channel’s demo videos.
- Basic at-home/rehabilitative exercises
“With great mobility comes great responsibility. What you do with it from here is up to you”
– Dr. James
Strengthening Phase
Once we’ve achieved the balance of muscle groups across dysfunctional joints at the end of Phase 2, patients can continue to improve the strength of the dysfunctional muscles, re-introduce complex movements, and challenge the neuromuscular system to improve coordination and balance. The provider will set up a plan for the patient that takes Phase 2 to the next level. More advanced at-home or in-the-gym exercises are prescribed based on the needs of the patient. Here are some examples of these exercises with a link to our YouTube channel demonstrating each one.
- Strengthening, coordination, and balance exercises
“We don’t use machines, we build them.”
– Dr. James
Wellness Phase
The Wellness Phase begins when our patients achieve their goals and are no longer demonstrating dysfunctional movement patterns. The frequency of visits in this phase is based upon the amount of wear the body receives on a regular basis and how well prescribed exercises are practiced between appointments. The typical wellness plan ranges between one visit every two weeks and one visit every four weeks. Care during this phase is designed to maintain proper alignment and function and to learn preventive measures to reduce the risk of injury in the future. If continued growth towards optimal well-being is desired, the provider will likely recommend co-management with nutritional support, personal training, or massage therapy. These services are provided at 8 Flags Chiropractic and it’s “sister business,” Personalized Performance.