Why do I have to return so frequently at the beginning of my treatment plan?

The optimum therapy plan generally consists of a higher frequency of visits during the initial duration of the plan. There are a few reasons as to why.

First, most conditions treated by a chiropractor are generally a result of inflammation occurring inside of the body. When inflammation is present, it brings about multiple physiological changes including pain, redness, swelling, heat, and loss of function. Traditional pharmacological treatments like Advil, Ibuprofen, or other NSAIDS are applied every few 4-8 hours to minimize the swelling. Dr. Maroon would like to treat every day to receive similar results; however this is not feasible for most patients. Therefore Dr. Maroon requests most of his patients return for multiple visits during the first few weeks of their treatment plan. The faster the swelling goes down, the quicker the healing process begins. As soon as the patient shows 50% improvement, care is generally withdrawn to assess stability of the condition.

Second, like everything else in life, most people do not benefit from performing a task once a week. Think about beginning an exercise routine in hopes of weight loss. If you only go to the gym once a week, chances are it will be a long duration of time before you notice any significant changes. If you exercise 3-5 times a week, these changes will occur at a much faster rate, thus leading to a better lifestyle. Chiropractic essentially uses the same rationale. If you only come once a week, you will notice changes, but you cannot expect these changes to occur in a short period of time. If you come multiple times for the first few weeks; these changes will occur at a much quicker duration.

Thirdly, the healing process is not linear; rather it is a series of peaks-and-valleys. It is Dr. Maroon’s goal to provide 20-25% of improvement each patient visit. However, as the patient returns to their daily lives, most activities tend to aggravate the injury and lower this 20-25% significantly. The longer the patient waits between treatments times, the more aggravation generally occurs. Thus, Dr. Maroon would like to see the patient as much as possible in the early stages of the injury to promote a faster healing to aggravating ratio.