Chiropractic care is a wonderful natural approach to healthcare that is suitable for the whole family with every generation in mind. To fully understand the benefits, let us begin by simply outlining the “how.”

The Adjustment

At the heart of chiropractic care is the adjustment. An adjustment is a specific application of force used to correct the alignment, motion, and or function of a joint. The force must be delivered with the right amount of pressure in the proper direction at the right time. While it is often done with the doctor’s hands, adjusting instruments may be used instead.

What Makes Us Different?

In our office, the doctors are trained not only in spinal adjusting but adjusting the jaw (TMJ), shoulders, elbows, wrists (especially for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome), hands, knees, ankles, and feet. Obviously, different conditions may require different adjustment methods.

The doctors of McCormick Chiropractic also have extra training in adjusting infants, children and have achieved advanced certification for adjusting pregnant women.

While many chiropractors may only use one or two methods of adjusting, the doctors at McCormick Chiropractic are knowledgeable in multiple techniques. The doctors always try to employ an effective technique (gets results) but are also comfortable for that individual.

Some Methods of Adjusting We Use Are:

• Diversified – the classic chiropractic technique that uses specific manual thrusts focused on restoring normal biomechanical function and removing pressure from the nervous system.
• Release Work – the chiropractor applies gentle pressure using his or her fingertips to relax muscle spasms and separate the vertebrae.
• Table adjustments – The patient lies on a special table with sections that dropdown. The chiropractor applies a gentle but quick thrust at the same time the section drops. The dropping of the table allows for a lighter adjustment without the twisting positions that can accompany other techniques.
• Instrument adjustments – often the gentlest methods of adjusting the spine. The patient lies on the table face down or will remain seated while the chiropractor uses a spring-loaded instrument to perform the adjustment.
• Cox Flexion-Distraction – a gentle, non-force adjusting procedure that mixes chiropractic principles with osteopathic principles and utilizes specialized adjusting tables with movable parts. This technique works well with patients that have had past spinal surgeries.
• Gonstead Technique – Developed by an engineering enthusiast turned chiropractor; this technique uses a very specific method of analysis by the use of full spine x-rays and precise adjusting techniques. This technique works well with patients with herniated discs.
• Webster Technique – used to correct sacral misalignment and balance pelvic muscles and ligaments, which helps remove torsion to the woman’s uterus, its resulting constraint to the baby, and allows the baby to get into the best position for birth.

How Safe is an Adjustment?

The World Health Organization states that when “employed skillfully and appropriately, chiropractic care is safe and effective for the prevention and management of many health problems.”