Professional Chiropractors take seven years of post secondary education. This includes an undergraduate degree followed by four years of Chiropractic College, with 4,300 hours of contact time and 1,500 clinic hours. A Chiropractic degree is comparable to Dentistry.
Most often yes. The majority of private health plans offer coverage for Chiropractic care similar to Dental coverage. Chiropractic care is not covered by provincial health insurance in Nova Scotia. We encourage our patients to contact their insurance provider to determine what level of coverage they have available. We are able to directly bill most private plans, meaning you would only need to cover any difference in cost.
Traditional Chiropractic was based on the idea that treating the spine could affect all the nerves and in-turn affect many different internal organs and diseases. While there have been some interesting anecdotal reports about these different treatments they do not stand up to the challenge of scientific scrutiny.
To quote Carl Sagan "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence", and we don't see adequate evidence to promote those treatments.
Our goal at Bedford Chiropractic is to provide sound evidence based treatments, and our focus is on the joints, nerves and muscles throughout the body, especially the spine. In our view Chiropractors are non-surgical spine care specialists.
That question does not have a simple answer, the ideal treatment for any particular problem is really based on the individual problem and the person. We do know that for “uncomplicated” low back pain the first three research-based recommendations are to stay active, try over the counter medications and spinal manipulation.
In our clinic we try to combine several well recognized and researched treatment modalities to get the fastest resolution. We usually recommend a combination of activity and exercise, soft tissue massage, and manipulation/mobilization, in addition to other therapies where appropriate such as Kinesotape, Graston soft tissue mobilization, Rehabilitation, US/IFC and laser therapy.
