Personalised Care
Each patient has different goals when undergoing chiropractic care. Some solely want to be rid of their pain, while others are looking to increase their overall function and optimise performance. Your treatment plan will reflect your diagnosis, and most importantly what you wish to achieve from care.
At Canberra Chiropractic we work on PAIN – MOBILITY – STABILITY – PERFORMANCE continuum.
Pain
It is important to understand what pain is. Pain is an “unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage.”
Pain can tighten or inhibit muscles, drive faulty movement patterns, and change the way the brain perceives movement. As such, timely reduction of pain is of high importance in the initial phases of care. In the clinic, pain is monitored both subjectively, and objectively – using pain and disability scales, questionnaires etc. In some cases it may be necessary to use other forms of pain control, and we will happily liaise with your GP and pharmacist if any analgaesics are required.
Pain largely acts as a preventative measure – ideally it acts an alarm before tissue damage occurs. When tissue has damaged its load capacity is reduced. As a result, the pain threshold drops to protect the injured area. While recovering from injury, it is important to appropriately load the tissue, so that the brain resets the pain-free capacity of the area.
Movement
Quality of movement is quality of life. As soon as it is safe to do so, your chiropractor will encourage you to move the area of concern. Sometimes it will only be in certain directions, but movement is essential to recovery (see above).
Both passive and active modalities are used to regain, and maintain a full range of motion.
Stability
Stability is achieved by information coming in to the nervous system generating an appropriate response.
Passive stability refers to the stability provided by bones, joint surfaces, and ligaments.
Dynamic stability is generated by muscles, essentially the co-contraction of several muscles at the same time.
Breathing is a key component of stability, and is a key component of any corrective exercise program.