FAMILY CARE
Dr. Treinen offers a variety of chiropractic services based upon extensive post-graduate certifications in a number of fields, including whiplash, sports injuries and general family care. Some patients needs are best served by a very brief course of chiropractic care before release to an as-needed-basis. Others have long-term problems that require longer-term care to provide correction of deeply established pathological muscle memory patterns. And there are those patients who require something in-between. Patients often present with conditions that require an overlap of treatment regimens. For instance, a patient who sustains whiplash injury to the neck may also have sustained injury to the shoulder joint and arm, requiring the skills Dr. Treinen honed in his Whiplash Certifications, and Sports Injury Certification. Thus, there are different levels of care that the patient can choose from depending upon their short-term or long-term goals. The patient’s goal is our goal, we just need the patient to decide from these different options so we know how to schedule their appointments. Below are listed detailed descriptions from which the patient can discuss which option suits their goals the best.
RELIEF CARE
The goal of relief care consists of treatment directed to relief of symptoms for a short term problem. In this situation the patient may present with spinal or extremity pain that really only needs a few treatments to reach complete resolution of their problem before being released to an as-needed-basis. If the patient has a frequently recurring problem, or constant level of pain with varying levels of severity, or has just sustained a significant injury, REHABILITATIVE CARE OR CORRECTIVE CARE may better suit their long-term goals.
REHABILITATIVE
Rehabilitative care typically involves a patient who has sustained significant soft tissue injury to the spine and/or extremity, such as a whiplash or significant fall. The goals of rehabilitative care are directed at restoration of normal function of the movement of the spine, or extremity. The joints of the spine and extremities require synchronized muscle memory patterns, such as when bending the spine, or throwing a ball. There are numerous muscles whose individual contractions must be precisely coordinated in their relative timing, strength, and duration of contraction. This synchronization can be lost in an instant during a whiplash injury or fall. If the tissue is traumatized then scar tissue will form. The goal in rehabilitation is to restore normal joint alignment and motion while the scar forms so that the joints do not heal in abnormal position. It is also critical to shape the scar into a small, strong and flexible scar vs. large, weak and inflexible scars. REHABILITATIVE CARE usually requires chiropractic care in conjunction with therapeutic exercise rehabilitation and this can often be performed at home, but some cases require high tech exercise equipment, as are present at Mountain Chiropractic, to precisely isolate the correct muscle groups being rehabilitated. The severity of injury dictates the frequency and duration of care required to achieve such goals.
CORRECTIVE CARE
People who have chronic or recurrent neck or back pain typically have crooked spines. Their spines usually get crooked as a result of trauma, and/or poor posture habits. Crooked spines adapt with abnormal muscle memory patterns and wear out at accelerated rates. The rate at which crooked spines wear out is proportional to the severity of deviation from normal alignment. Corrective care typically requires chiropractic care in conjunction with rehabilitative procedures to restore normal alignment, muscle memory patterns, and strength. This specialized field of chiropractic is called SPINAL BIOMECHANICS. Unless and until the spinal alignment and abnormal muscle memory patterns are restored, the rate of degenerative changes and pain that goes with it will continue unabated. Naturally, the duration of corrective care is proportional to the severity of spinal deviation and how deep-seated the abnormal muscle memory patterns are. There is abundant scientific research that is the basis for these treatment plans. Dr. Treinen is certified in the implementation of this specialized field of SPINAL BIOMECHANICS.
SUPPORTIVE CARE
Supportive care typically involves regular or p.r.n. care following CORRECTIVE CARE as described above after the patient has reached maximum therapeutic benefit. As expected, some spines are so decrepit by the time CORRECTIVE CARE is employed that the spine cannot be completely restored to normal function. While most all such patients return to pain free function, still having a relatively crooked spine requires requires periodic SUPPORTIVE CARE to help maintain gains made in CORRECTIVE CARE.
SPINAL HYGIENE
Numerous research studies demonstrate that people who get regular chiropractic care are healthier, require much less medication, and have much lower health care expenditures when compared to those who do not get regular chiropractic care. The concept of regular CHIROPRACTIC HYGIENE CARE to maintain a healthy functioning spine is similar to the benefits of healthy teeth afforded to those who get regular dental hygiene care. Examples of these studies can be found under the CHIROPRACTIC HYGIENE CARE section in this website, but read about one such example here: Henry Winsor, MD, University of Pennsylvania Medical School, performed autopsies on 50 human cadavers to determine if any correlation existed between the function of spinal segments and the state of health of the corresponding tissues/organs, whose nerve supply originated from those same spinal segments. Dr. Winsor identified 139 areas of wear and tear spinal degeneration. In all of those 139 areas of degeneration, Winsor found an 100% association of pathology of the corresponding tissues/organs supplied by the nerves from those segments. Conversely, he found a 100% association of healthy tissue/organs with a nerve supply originating from healthy spinal areas.
