Thank you for joining me again this evening for these nightly podcasts. I am Dr. Harrison Campbell main chiropractor and Restoration Health at Premier in Sugar land chiropractors office. Performance podcast in hopes that you can take tips and tricks to your daily life to have a healthier happier life style. And in tonightís podcast we will be discussing over treatment.
At first glance over treatment may sound odd but it is real and is a factor when determining. Treatment plans. Over treatment occurs when to many treatments were performed on a given visit. The outcome of this over treatment can vary from inaccuracies with reporting improvements to increased pain levels in patients.
As sugar land chiropractors know it is of the utmost importance to know and understand how the patient responds to each therapy performed. this may sound obvious on the outside but this is a mistake many people make even in their daily lives. And example is when people have allergies but they are unsure of what theyíre allergic to. It is why you start a new worn off with specific types of food in a controlled setting and Iíll just introduce a vast quantity new friends without first seeing the outcome of the original foods introduced.
Without knowing the effects something will have you cannot know what the results will be. For instance. If someone presents to a sugar land chiropractors office with neck pain and the following treatments are performed: exercises, electrical stimulation, cervical spinal decompression, ultrasound, manual therapy, adjustments, acupuncture, and massage. Let us say that they improve and on their follow up visit they demonstrate that improvement. Which therapy was the therapy which improved their next pain?
Did the massage and exercise help? Or was it the passive therapies in electrical stimulation and ultrasound? Did the adjustments alone improve the patients health? Did a single therapy provide any help at all or did the benefit from these therapies come from all of them combined?
Simple answer is we do not know. No sugar land chiropractors would be able to know. Without taking the time to see how the patient will react to individual therapy you have no idea what was the deciding factor in that patientís health improving. And even more importantly is that example was a positive outcome for the patient improving. What happens if there is a negative outcome for the patient creating a worsening of symptoms.
Let us use that same example of a patient with neck pain and all of the same therapy as were done. Was it the cervical spinal decompression that made them worse? Was it the exercises to increase their pain? Was it a massage with amino therapy and have them take a turn for increased symptoms?
Again the simple answer is you do not know. With so many variables in play all at the same time there is no answer to what caused the effect. This is why it is imperative to perform only a few therapies at a time and gauge the patients outcome to those performed therapies.
Now letís move to the other side of the issue. Over treatment can also be in reference to the treatment removing the guarding mechanisms which are decreasing the patients pain levels. Now this term guarding is used by many sugar land chiropractors when they are talking about the muscles protecting an injured body area. Four instance the muscles of the low back tighten when there is a low back injury. Similarly if there is a knee injury the muscles in the leg tighten to help stabilize the knee and protect it from further injury. This phenomenon is what is known as muscle guarding and as stated previously sugar land chiropractors shorten this term to simply guarding. Now while this guarding sounds simply enough the ramifications for altering this muscular state can create severe pain in patietns.
Over treatment in this case removes this guarding mechanism which is decreasing the patientís pain preventing movement of the injured area and in some cases providing stability. The outcome of this is the patient feels worse off than they did prior to therapy. We do want to reduce muscle tension, we do want to restore mobility but if these are done at the improper time the patient will receive no benefits only suffering. I tell many of my patients that the path to getting better is walking the line between getting you better as quickly and efficiently as possible without overstepping the bounds and creating this issue of over treatment.
Now due to sugar land chiropractors experience knowledge and training we can avoid the issue of over treatment. It is typically those who are inexperienced or who are pressured by patients would fall into this trap of over treating and doing an injustice to their patients. Therefore you can be safe in the knowledge that when you visit Restoration Health the staff and doctor are knowledgeable and experienced. We understand the proper treatment plan and protocols to utilize to ensure you return to health as quickly as possible without you having to worry about something like over treatment causing issues.
Should you need a new chiropractor or are simply looking for your first chiropractor please call Restoration Health today. We strive to provide the best experience for our patients. This experience includes rehabilitation, adjustments, passive therapies, information, and much more. To find out about all of these wonderful treatments and further your education on ther health give us a call to set up your appointment today.
I do hope you found tonightís podcast on over treatment informative and educational. If you know someone or if you yourself suffer from pain please contact Restoration Health today in order to schedule an appointment. If you or someone you know needs the services of Sugar land chiropractors please call Restoration Health today as well so that we can schedule an appointment. Thank you once again for Joining us and I hope to see you have a good night.