Hi, my name is Dr. Katie Sleigh at Sleigh Family Chiropractic. And today we’re going to be talking about how we will help to eliminate headaches.
Initial Headache Consultation
The first thing that we do when a new patient comes into the office is a thorough consultation. So what that means is that the doctor is going to meet with you and really listen, they’re gonna listen to how you think the pain started, what seems to aggravate it, how long it’s been going on, we’re going to really try to uncover as many details about what’s going on as we possibly can. From there, we’re going to recommend an evaluation, that evaluation is going to be looking for what we call subluxation. So let me explain what that is. So what we know is that the brain controls every single thing that happens in the body through your nervous system, which is this up and down yellow line, that’s the spinal cord that goes through all of the bones in the spine, and then branches to the spinal nerves which go to every single cell tissue, muscle and organ in the body. Like I said, what we look for, and what we treat are called subluxations. That’s an area in the spine like this roadblock up here, that either not aligned properly, it’s not moving correctly, and is putting pressure on that spinal nerve or causing dysfunction in that spinal nerve, which stops that nerve from working like it’s supposed to.
Evaluation and Exam
When it comes to headaches, what we know is that the nerves that especially in that upper part of the neck, are the ones that go into the head. So when it comes to evaluation for headache, we’re really going to be focusing on that area. The first part of the evaluation is going to be palpation. This is where the doctor will feel the spine and feel for where things in the spine are moving like they’re supposed to or where they may be subluxated. The next part will be looking at posture. So posture is the window to the spine. And imbalances in posture, give us some good information about where things are out of balance in the spine as well. When it comes to headaches, we’re especially going to look at the alignment in the neck from the side, we’re going to look at how that ear lines up with the shoulder. So the further forward that the ear comes, the more pressure that we know there will be on the neck, which is a major contributor to headaches. The next part of the evaluation is going to be our insight subluxation station scans. These scans are a computerized objective way for us to look at the function of the nervous system. When it comes to headaches, we’re going to especially be paying attention to the upper back and neck. Our first scan is our pair spinal thermography scan that’s going to look for inflammation along the spine. And then our next scan is our surface EMG scan. What that scan does is it measures how the muscles are working that are supporting the spine. So again, we’re especially going to be focusing on the neck and upper back, because that’s the areas that generally relate with headaches. Then we will move on to taking some x ray images when it comes to headaches, we’re really going to focus especially on the neck, we do have digital X ray here on site, which allows us to get results really quickly. And that also helps to reduce exposure for patients.
Digital X-rays
X rays when it comes to headaches are very important to us because it shows us things that we we can see but we can’t necessarily feel. So it helps us to determine where we should adjust where we should not adjust how we should adjust and how we should not a just a patient. So as we are looking at the X rays, the things that we are going to especially be looking for our alignment in the joints. And we’re also going to be looking for the normal cervical curve. When patients lose that cervical curve from things like using devices and working on computers all day with improper posture, it puts a lot of stress and strain throughout the neck and especially in that top part of the neck where the nerves are that go into the head and commonly cause headaches. From here, what we do is we combine everything that that we did with our evaluation to put together a treatment plan specifically designed to get rid of your headaches. So that plan will include how often we want to see you how long we think it will take to fix we’ll talk about any stretches and exercises we want you to do at home as long as therapy’s here in the office. But the main foundation of what we do here in the office is As the chiropractic adjustment and what that does is it helps to free up the joints, especially in the neck to allow those nerves that have in the neck to function like they should have which helps to alleviate headaches.
Chiropractic Adjustments
So there are several different types of adjustments that we use in the office. The first type of adjustment is a more manual adjustment. And this is the type of adjustment that’s oftentimes associated with popping and clicking noises. Many patients however, do not appreciate that popping and clicking notice that we do offer other styles of adjusting that are very gentle. The second style of adjustment is done face down and we use the drop table technique so the table pops up under the patient and the doctor will use a gentle pressure on the neck to free up the function of that joint. And the third type of adjustment is instrument assisted, we use an activator tool and that tool is very quick and it just taps the bone back into alignment. Another part of your treatment plan may also include electric stim and intersegmental traction. What this helps to do is bring more blood flow and oxygen to the muscles that support the spine, which help you to heal faster and hold your adjustments quicker. I hope this video helps you to understand a little bit more about how we work to eliminate headaches.
If you have any questions please feel free to contact the office or leave a message below!
