Frequently Asked Questions

A chiropractic adjustment is a highly specialized procedure your doctor of chiropractic uses to free your body from a serious form of health destroying stress called the subluxation.

Simply stated, a subluxation is a distortion in your structural system that interferes with the nerve communications in your body.

While there are some simple things that will tell you if you might have one, chiropractic education involves years of study and training for your chiropractor to master the techniques needed to locate and correct your subluxations.

Chiropractic is one of the largest and most popular natural, drug-free healthcare systems in the world. Why? Because chiropractors perform a unique service--they locate and release stress from your body, a stress that affects your brain, spinal cord and structural system.

Chiropractors spend years of highly specialized training learning how to locate theses subluxations. After locating the subluxations your chiropractor, using various highly specialized adjusting or correcting techniques, releases pressure from your nerves and structural system. This procedure is called a chiropractic adjustment.

Chiropractors can perform manual spinal manipulations that result in cracking, or popping sounds called cavitation sounds. This technique is called diversified technique. Some patients are afraid of cavitation sounds and prefer instrument adjusting like Activator technique or Pulstar technique. Some doctors use a technique called the Thompson technique that uses a specialized drop table. There is a technique that uses blocking which is called SOT for sacro-occipital technique. Over the years, many techniques have developed that take into consideration patient comfort.

Chiropractors treat neck pain, lower back pain such as sciatica, whiplash caused by auto accidents or slips and falls, worker's compensation injuries involving accidents as well as repetitive strain injuries like carpal tunnel syndrome, shoulder pain, knee ankle and foot pain, headaches like migraines, sports injuries and any pain cuased from joint problems like arthritis.

Spinal facet joints contain gas within the joint capsule that is released during the motion caused by an adjustment. This popping noise is called a cavitation sound. It is possible to adjust a patient without causing this sound by using specialized adjusting instruments. These instruments introduce motion into a fixated joint without causing a cavitation noise. Some patients love to hear a popping sound while others fear the popping sound. Chiropractors will determine which technique best suits the individual patient.

No, health factors such as age, bone density, pain level, prescription medications and patient preference are all considered when treating each individual patient.

Sciatica is one of the most commonly self-diagnosed conditions. Most people consider any pain that travels down their leg to be sciatica. Other conditions such as piriformis syndrome, can put pressure on the sciatic nerve and cause pain down your leg. Chiropractors are trained how to identify the cause of your sciatic pain. A protruded or extruded disc can put pressure on your sciatic nerve. Degenerative disc disease that causes the hole where the sciatic nerve exits the spine to get smaller (called stenosis) can pinch on the sciatic nerve. Bone spurs can pinch on the sciatic nerve as well as spinal cord tumors. Once a chiropractor diagnoses the cause of your sciatica, they will either perform chiropractic adjustments on your spine to relieve pressure on the sciatic nerve, or refer you out to a healthcare provider for other treatment options.

Major government studies from the US, UK, Canada and New Zealand have reaffirmed what chiropractic patients have been telling their friends with back pain for years:" Why don't you see my chiropractor? You'll get better much faster than from drugs or surgery-and it's safer too." Studies repeatedly reveal that chiropractic care is more effective than other approaches for low back pain.

As one study concluded. "Chiropractic was particularly effective in those with fairly intractable pain-that is, those with a history of severe pain…the percentage of chiropractic patients who were "very satisfied ' with the care they received for low back pain was triple that for patients of family physicians.

Why are the results so overwhelmingly in favor of chiropractic? Because painkillers, muscle relaxants, Valium, braces, physical therapy and surgery are not designed to correct subluxations. Chiropractic is.

Dr. Patricia Wendel graduated valedictorian for Life University. Prior to studying at Chiropractic school, she attended Temple University on a full academic scholarship. She is an expert in treating whiplash and traumatic brain injury. She has worked with several professional athletes in a multidisciplinary clinic. Dr. Wendel stays current by attending continuing education classes, including MRI interpretation and spinal disc pathology, ensuring that her patients receive the most comprehensive and advanced chiropractic care. Dr. Wendel treats with the patient's wellbeing in mind. We offer treatment with no long-term contracts. There are options of treatment without popping, cracking, or twisting. Or advanced technology includes computerized visual screening to show improvement.

Every trauma has the potential to upset and damage your body's structural balance by causing subluxations. Subluxations are slight structural distortions that create abnormal stress. This stress impinges, "pinches," stretches or compresses your nerves, affection your muscles, internal organs, glands, discs, bones and even your brain itself.

Subluxations can cause general overall body malfunction or dis-ease. Dis-ease can result in fatigue, premature aging, arthritis changes, muscular weakness and altered function of your internal organs.

A pregnant woman needs to have her body as healthy and strong as possible in order to handle the rigors of pregnancy and childbirth. Chiropractic care will help ensure that all body systems function properly, especially the reproductive system which includes the uterus ovaries and related organs and structures so essential for a healthy pregnancy. If the body structure is causing the slightest nerve interference to these symptoms it could adversely affect the mother and the developing fetus. Dr. Wendel will examine your body for distortions know as subluxations that cause nerve stress. If Dr. Wendel finds subluxations in the body, she will correct them an adjustment.

Research studies repeatedly reveal that chiropractic helps lower back pain to recover faster and at less cost. In one study of people disabled from lower back pain those who used chiropractic had 24% faster decrease in disability, 5.9% less opioid painkiller use, and 19% less medical costs compared with those using physical therapy.