What is a Chiropractic Physician?
      A Chiropractic Physician is a physician who can improve the relationship between the spine and the nervous system. When the position of the bones in your spine are not moving properly or when your bones are out of place, you can have joint irritation or nerve interference, which may cause burning, tingling, pain, or numbness. A Chiropractic Physician can properly align the bones in your spinal column and/or extremities, which allows the bones and joints to properly move, reduces joint irritation and relieves nerve irritation and interference.
     When you experience pain, your body is telling you something is wrong. With Chiropractic care, your symptoms can be treated without side affects from drugs or surgery. Chiropractic Physicians treat patients by manually doing a procedure called “spinal adjustment or spinal manipulation.” Being neuromuscular (nerves and muscles) specialists, the Chiropractic Physicians will apply corrective pressure to the spine using their hands. This manual thrust helps the spine realign and aids in the mobility of the vertebrae. The popping noise you may hear is nitrogen gas being forced out of the joint, which will be reabsorbed by the body and burned off.

Is Chiropractic safe?
     Yes, Chiropractic is safe. The risks are substantially lower than those patients who have had surgery and those patients who are on prescription drugs given by “traditional” doctors.

Are Chiropractic Physicians "real" Doctors?
     Yes. A Chiropractic Physician is a Doctor of Chiropractic (D.C.), not a medical doctor (M.D.). A Chiropractic Physician must have a Bachelors degree to enter into a Chiropractic College and then 4 years of Chiropractic School to earn a Doctorate degree and license. He or she must complete just under 5,000 hours of classroom study and take challenging National Board Examinations as well as State Examinations. Chiropractic Physicians also have training in Cardiology, Gastrointestinal, Obstetrics, Gynecology, and with special training in Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology, Neurology, Biomechanics, X-Ray imaging techniques, and Spinal adjusting techniques. Chiropractic Physicians are not only highly educated, but are also strictly regulated. This is one of the reasons why Chiropractic care has one of the safest records of treatment in the healthcare industry. Doctors of Chiropractic must complete postgraduate instructions for annual license renewal in order to stay current with the latest scientific research.

Do you accept insurance?
     Yes, we accept most insurance.

Do you need to have insurance to be a patient?
     No. Patients have several payment options. We accept cash, personal checks, and debit or credit cards.

During pregnancy, can Chiropractic help?
     Yes, Chiropractic can benefit pregnant women. You may get adjusted up to three months into pregnancy without complications and may continue getting the cervical adjustment throughout the entire pregnancy. By doing this, you are keeping your joints mobile and allowing your central nervous system to function at a maximum level.

Are emergency appointments accepted?
     Yes, patients with emergencies in most cases may call for an appointment and see the doctor the same day.

How often are treatments necessary?
     Depending on the patient, multiple treatments may be necessary for your specific health condition in order to get control, stabilize and correct the situation. Patients may require more than spinal manipulation or an adjustment for quicker pain relief. Chiropractors use other techniques and therapies such as: electrical stimulation, ice, moist heat, ultrasound, stretching, rehab exercises, nutritional counseling, nutritional supplements and more.

Are the treatments painful?
     Adjustments or manipulations are normally painless. However, in some cases of trauma (i.e. whiplash) you may experience slight discomfort due to inflammation. It is common to feel an immediate and brief sensation in the extremities after an adjustment due to the sudden decompression of the nerve root that is affected. Most patients feel relief and have an increased range of motion immediately following a treatment.

Can children receive Chiropractic care?
     Yes. Chiropractors are trained to treat people from the time they are infants until they are seniors. However, each treatment is altered to match each patient.

Are your patients treated as respected individuals or as a statistic? 
     At Boca Health & Wellness Center we take great pride in treating our patients with the utmost respect and kindness. We believe it is important to take the time to listen and understand each situation individually. This enables the doctor to evaluate and treat each patient more effectively. 

In treating your patients, do you use drugs?
     No. Chiropractors believe that drugs only mask the symptoms and do not get to the root of the problem, which actually causes patients to progressively get worse. Many drugs lead to side effects, which can worsen a patient’s condition. While, some prescription drugs are needed to continue living a “normal” day-to-day life, often such conditions are actually due to the mishandling of the condition in the first place. If you are on prescription medications, you should continue taking them until you consult with your doctor. If it is viewed necessary for a patient to see a medical specialist, we will recommend that patient to do so.

Do I need X-Rays?
     In most cases X-Rays are necessary, but not every patient needs to have X-Rays taken. It all depends on your condition.

Once you start going to a Chiropractor, do you have to continue going forever?
     No. In most cases, the recommended treatment will take an average of 12-16 visits. However, in certain cases, longer treatment might be recommended. Once your pain and discomfort has been resolved, it may be in your best interest to still return for a treatment every once in a while for “maintenance” care.

Why can’t I adjust or "crack" my own neck?
     “Cracking” your own neck or making your joints pop is not adjusting yourself. By doing this, you can make your joints hypermoble, making the problem worse or creating new problems. It is not recommended that you “crack” or adjust your own self, make an appointment and let the Chiropractor properly adjust your neck and back for you.

What does the adjustment or manipulation of the vertebrae accomplish?
A. It separates and stretches the joint briefly. When this occurs, the joint     fluid comes in to promote normal motion.

B. It awakens receptors in the spine. These receptors will help block the pain     and recalibrate nerve signals.

C. The adjustment promotes healing by increasing the blood flow to that area.

D. The muscles around the joint are stretched, which alleviates muscle     spasms and joint motion is restored.

E. Improves motion, lessens or eliminates pain.

What if I have a pinched nerve?
      A pinched nerve is rather uncommon, although in some instances may occur. It is more likely you may have a neighboring spinal bone that aggravates or rubs on a nerve.

Can I have chiropractic care after back surgery?
     Yes. After surgery, you may experience strain in the areas adjacent to the area of operation. In this case it would be necessary to focus on and maintain these areas more often with chiropractic care in order to prevent these areas from degenerating.

Taken from Chiroweb. Chiropractic in the United States: Training, Practice, and Research. AHCPR Publication No. 98-N002.

December 1997, CHAPTER III, CHIROPRACTIC TRAINING. D. Coulter, PhD; Alan H. Adams, DC; Ruth Sandefur, DC PhD.

Chiropractic VS. Medical Education

     How much education does a chiropractic doctor have? The facts may surprise you. Today, highly specialized training is required to graduate and earn licensure. Chiropractic school is quite similar to that of medical school, especially during the first 2 years of the 4 year program. A Chiropractic program consists of 4 academic years of professional education after completion of a 4 year undergraduate degree. Chiropractic education averages a total of 4,822 hours, ranging from 4,400 hours to 5,220 hours in the 16 colleges. This includes an average if 1,975 hours in clinical sciences and 1,045 hours of clinical clerkship. The minimum hours for accreditation by the Council on Chiropractic Education is 4,200 hours. Chiropractic doctors are well trained to refer to other health care providers when clinically necessary. It is for this reason that a chiropractor’s training includes courses such as Cardiology, Gastrointestinal, Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Pathology amongst others.

     In comparing the curricula of these two professions into subjects and how much is taught? They are relatively similar in total student contact hours: an average of 4,822 hours in chiropractic schools compared with 4,667 hours in medical schools (Coulter, et al, submitted). Basic science comprises 25-30 percent of the total contact hours in both the chiropractic and medical programs and the two programs have roughly similar contact hours in Biochemistry, Microbiology, and Pathology. Chiropractors receive substantially more hours in Anatomy education and Physiology but many fewer in public health.

Comparisons of the Overall Curriculum Structure for Chiropractic and Medical Schools

Source: Center for Studies in Health Policy, Inc., Washington, DC. Personal communication of 1995 unpublished data from Meredith Gonyea, PhD.