If you’ve visited your chiropractor recently, you probably received an adjustment, the primary service most chiropractors offer. Adjustments are intended to restore and/or enhance normal function by reducing or eliminating any stress or interference in your body’s control system, the nerve system. Spinal bones (vertebrae) can lose their proper position and disturb nerve function, and adjustments are designed to relieve that nerve pressure and allow the body to heal and function the way it was meant to.
The art of chiropractic is unique to each practitioner – some adjustments are very light, some are more firm. Some are done by hand, while others may use an instrument of some kind. Some adjustments make noise, and some are silent. There are dozens of ways chiropractors correct nerve interference, and no one way is necessarily better than the others – they all have their place, and they all do good for people. It’s up to the individual chiropractor to choose which methods are a good fit for each patient’s needs.
Chiropractors study for years in chiropractic college to become expert at adjusting, and most take post-doctoral courses in specialized techniques to improve and master their art. You may even notice that on different visits, your doctor adjust different areas or uses a different approach – that’s because each patient is unique, and each adjustment requires the doctor of chiropractic to evaluate and decide where the nerve interference may be, and what to do to correct it. This may only take a few moments, but it is custom-tailored to your body, and is one of the reasons chiropractors get such great results in helping people get well and stay well – the chiropractor gives the body what it wants and needs to heal itself.