X-rays at East End Chiropractic
Our goal at East End Chiropractic is to help you maintain a healthy lifestyle, and we believe that in order for you to do so, it is important to take good care of your spine and joints. When you come to our office as a new patient, Dr. Olsen will perform a thorough evaluation to determine the root cause of the symptoms you are experiencing. The doctor may need to take x-rays to get a closer look at what’s going on. In the last year, we added x-ray equipment to our office. This has been a wonderful thing because, now, when the doctor requires x-rays to be done, we no longer need to refer our patients to an imaging center.
Are x-rays are required for all new patients? No. X-ray studies are only performed when the doctor deems them clinically necessary. Now, if you were x-rayed recently at another doctor’s office, and those x-rays pertain to the part of the body that we are focusing on, you probably will not need to have additional images done at our office.
A concern with x-rays is radiation exposure. When it comes to the dangers of radiation, the key factor is really the dosage. Thankfully, the effective dosage for spinal x-rays is very minimal (about 1.5 mSv). For more information, check out this website. Though the radiation dosage is minimal for spinal x-rays, we still take a number of precautions to reduce the incidence of unnecessary radiation exposure to the patient and those nearby. Our x-ray imaging system has been evaluated and cleared by the State of Tennessee’s department of Radiological Health, we use lead shielding to cover parts of the body that we are not imaging, and we do not x-ray women who are pregnant.
In review, we offer on-site x-ray imaging, we do so only when necessary, and we use the minimal dose of radiation necessary in order to obtain a quality image.
Knee Pain and Chiropractic Care
A very common condition we see in our office is knee pain with no particular mechanism of injury (in other words, the knee became painful over time and didn’t occur as a result of a specific trauma or disease.)
When there is a specific traumatic event (like having your legs knocked out from under you in a football game) or a disease process (like rheumatoid arthritis), It is very easy to understand why the knee tissues have failed.
Most knee injuries fall outside of these categories. Most knee injuries happen over long periods of time as a result of repetitive abnormal stress. The condition is usually unilateral, meaning that only one knee is symptomatic.
The question is, why are knees so problematic? Really, as far as joints go, they are relatively simple. They only move along one plane of motion – they flex, as in moving the heel toward the buttock, and extend, as in straightening the leg. There is a tiny bit of normal rotation in the knee joint, but let’s not split hairs here. Compared to the shoulder, which moves in many directions, the knee is very simple.
The answer lies in the fact that most knee problems do not originate in the knee. Most knee problems originate in either the pelvis/lower back region (above the knee) or the foot/ankle region (below the knee).
Dysfunctional hip, pelvic, or lower back motion transfers a lot of extra stress to the knees. In these cases, one knee is usually taking more impact than the other, and the impact is occurring at an abnormal angle. This quickly wears out the cushioning tissue and over-stretches the ligaments that support the knee joint.
Sometimes the root of the knee problem lies in the foot or ankle. Collapsed longitudinal arches in the feet are a frequent cause. The tibia and fibula (leg bones) sit on top of the arch of the foot. When the arch collapses (there are many reasons for this – we’ll save those for another blog), the leg bones fall as well, causing uneven stress on the knees.
Chiropractic manipulation has a very good track record of restoring normal motion patterns to the hip/pelvis/lower back complex. Foot dysfunction also responds well to chiropractic care, along with orthotics in some cases (refer to blog on orthotics). There are also some minor manipulations that we can perform on the knees. We have found, though, that this is often not necessary if we restore normal motion to the hips, pelvis, lower back, and feet!
In summary, if you have knee problems, try our office first. Your knee problem may turn out not to be a knee problem at all! We will assess the situation and if we can help you with it, we will gladly do so. If we feel that it is a problem that would best be handled by another professional (orthopedist, physical therapist, physical trainer) we will gladly refer you to the appropriate professional.
Sign a Contract?
We are frequently asked a question that is actually quite troubling to me.
The question is: “will I have to sign a contract to get care in your office?” Another variation of that question is, “how do I get out of a contract that I have signed with another chiropractic office?”
We do not require our patients to sign a contract for care. We do not require up-front payment for multiple visits.
We only charge fees for services rendered. We only prescribe treatment that is necessary, no more, and no less. Each patient is different, requiring a different treatment plan based on the patient’s NEED for care. We do not have a “package” to sell you for “unlimited visits,” because most patients do not need an unlimited number of visits. In fact, part of being a doctor is prescribing the right amount of care. Not too little, not too much. Furthermore, if the patient is not progressing at a satisfactory rate, this individual should have the freedom to seek care somewhere else, without the burden of having signed a contract.
It is not illegal for a practice to do this. However, it does bring up some ethical questions. It is very important to question the motive of any contract BEFORE you sign it. Remember, a contract is typically written for the benefit of the person writing the contract, not the one signing the contract! Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you’d like to discuss setting an appointment for care. We also appreciate any feedback.
