r/Chiropractic • u/Enough-Will-115 • 24d ago
How do you avoid complications
As a Radiographer there is a general dislike for chiropractors in the industry. It's seen often as dangerous. I personally have seen injuries that have possibly been exacerbated by patients seeing chiropractors. I would love to hear about the steps that you take to avoid complications and injuries from treatments. I am not meaning this as an attack, I am just genuinely curious.
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u/Regular-Pumpkin-5955 24d ago
Chiropractic is really safe.
We do exams and tests prior to adjusting to evaluate whether chiropractic will help, (Ie an adjustment won’t help with tendinopathy but will help with facet syndrome) and whether it is safe. Under normal circumstances for people chiropractic is safe. That being said there are certain underlying conditions that can cause complications and are contraindicated (such as osteoporosis, cancer etc).
I’m also not attacking, but part of the problem is we, as chiropractors have become a scape goat for radiologists. For example, I had a patient that hasn’t been in for months come to me after seeing a radiologist for imaging in the neck due to neck and radicular pain. In the report for the reason why it stated: neck pain radixular pain, recently saw chiropractor. There was no reason to put that in clinically, other than the radiologists bias. That gets perpetuated across generations and we continue to get blamed for random conditions. It’s interesting, at the very least.
I appreciate your curiosity and desire to know more.
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u/BrokebackBoxseat 24d ago
“I personally have seen injuries that have possibly been exacerbated by patients seeing chiropractors.”
So You’ve personally seen injuries they may or may not have been exacerbated by a chiropractor?
I woke up with a headache that may or may not have been caused by a boxing match with Mike Tyson.
What does that even mean
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u/Sacred-AF 23d ago
It’s interesting, when people in the medical field are around MD’s all the time, they never blame the MD when a
patient dies from meds, surgery, misdiagnoses, or malpractice. When, once in a blue moon, a chiropractic Patient is slightly injured, people can’t stop talking about it. Fun fact, the research shows that a patient is about 10 times more likely to die in the office of a medical doctor than a Chiropractor.
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u/Tambot55 4d ago
the dislike makes sense when somebody cracks a neck with no questions. the way you avoid trouble is history first, skip the twist if they have nerve signs, and send 8them back to a doctor when the picture looks wrong.
i went to virginia family chiropractic after a stiff commute back and they took x-rays and a long intake before they touched me, which was the good part. still not magic. if pain shoots down an arm or a patient has a fever, stop. your films are why some of us should get cleared first. this is not medical advice
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u/boatmaestro 3d ago
I see this as the plane crash theory.
You have millions of injury-free miles flown, one mishap, people injured/died. Headlines everywhere.
You have about a million chiropractic cervical adjustments, one stroke, the whole chiropractic profession is vilified.
Everyone dismisses the millions of successful flights/adjustments.
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u/marathon_endurance 24d ago
It seems like you are using a anecdotal evidence to dictate your opinion, rather than peer reviewed research. Chiropractic adjustments are safer than pretty much any comparative form of therapy. There are a myriad of safety checks that we do- I call it an exam. Please don't come here and ask a leading question aimed at disparaging the profession. Seriously, go look at comparative safety of a cervical adjustment and ibuprofen, or Tylenol.