Most people know that chiropractors relieve back and neck pain. Many others have found that other painful conditions like sciatica, shoulder pain, and hip pain also respond to gentle and safe chiropractic care. However, how a chiropractor learns to relieve pain is a mystery to many. This article will discuss what the education and training of a chiropractor entails and the ability to provide pain relief for many conditions.
In my 35 years of practice, I have often had patients ask me how I learned the skills required by my profession. I answer that it is a long and rigorous process. Like other health care providers, such as dentists, physicians, podiatrists, and optometrists, graduate chiropractic education takes place after college education. In fact, chiropractic college involves a five-year program of intensive study after years at a traditional university or college.
Classes in anatomy (including cadaver dissection), physiology, chemistry, pathology, and other basic health sciences are part of the curriculum. Clinical studies are required in pathology, diagnosis, imaging, and blood and urine tests. However, most patients and other laypeople, and even some healthcare providers in other professions, are particularly curious to know how chiropractors learn the skill of manipulating the spinal vertebrae to relieve pain.
The actual chiropractic training classes start as soon as the incoming students start school. The first discipline to learn is palpation. Palpation is the ability to use the hands to feel various parts of the body to determine if there is normality or abnormality. Chiropractors learn to palpate the vertebrae in the spine to check for misalignments and incorrect movements of the spinal joints.
Chiropractic students also learn to feel for swelling or edema, muscle spasms, and abnormalities of the fascia, ligaments, and tendons. Palpation is an ongoing process throughout chiropractic education and the experience takes many years to develop. Chiropractors are the leading health specialists in the palpation of mechanical alignment problems of the spine.
The next thing in chiropractic education is to learn “techniques” to correct spinal pain conditions. Students learn many methods of manual manipulation (also called chiropractic adjustments) and mobilization. Much of the training involves the use of “hands-on” chiropractic techniques. There are hundreds of variations of chiropractic adjustments in which students must learn to correct mispositions and abnormal movement of the bones in the spine of the neck, mid and lower back, and pelvis. Chiropractors also learn to help with shoulder, hip, rib, and limb problems.
The techniques may also involve the use of specialized chiropractic tables and adjusting instruments. Many chiropractors also use deep pressure forms for muscle trigger points and myofascial strains, sprains, and disruptions.
At the beginning of chiropractic technique training, a student does not make a real “adjustment”. He or she just “sets up” the technique. This is done thousands of times. Only after a student has acquired proficiency in this phase will they proceed to chiropractic clinics to provide actual chiropractic adjustments to patients. This is done under the observation and instruction of trained chiropractic doctors, who are called clinicians.
Doctors guide a chiropractic intern through this phase of education. At the end of their internships, a doctor of chiropractic (DC) degree is awarded to the graduate and they are ready to be licensed in the 50 United States and many of the other countries in the world.
Most patients who receive a chiropractic adjustment find it a safe and enjoyable experience because it relieves muscle spasms and superficial muscle tension by correcting deeper spinal misalignment. Of course, chiropractors continue to learn and hone their skills during their many years of practice.
When patients, laity, and other healthcare professionals learn the amount of training that is required in the skill, art, and philosophy of chiropractic, they understand why the chiropractic profession is paramount in detecting and correcting problems. of the spine and in the relief of back and neck pain.